Stargate: The Butterfly Effect rewrite started!
by trekki859
Summary: The re-write has officially been posted. read the latest chapter for details.
1. Chapter 1

Tap tap tap, click tap tap click click, chirp chirp, plop!

"Fuck!" I scream as I toss a half filled water bottle I had lying beside me into the branches above my head.

"Fucking birds! goddammit that's gross." I mutter as I take one of the napkins from my lunch. Then wiped off the white blotch on the edge of my computer, crumbled it up and threw it away.

Sighing I finish the last few words of the letter I was writing before sending it off to three different e-mail addresses. When its done I sit up a little more while scrunching my back against the tree and I grabbed the mini-cooler beside me. Out of it I took a bottle of coke, and a 8 oz bottle of Jack Daniels. Pouring out half of the coke I then poured the Jack into the bottle and took a drink. I sighed as the familiar burn traveled down my throat.

That's when I pull back the hammer of my .357 revolver. You see, that gun was the whole reason I was out here, in the middle of North Dakota off on some back road field. So I could put it to my head and end it all.

Why you ask? It was simple, everything about me was a failure. Everything I did, I fucked up, no matter how simple it was I would without a doubt, do it wrong somehow. Yeah ok, not everything but all the important shit you know?. Like having a job, or a social life, for me its been all but impossible.

It was certainly not for a lack of trying. I've been trying to succeed for the past seven years of my life. Ever since I graduated early from high school I was out and about working this job or that, but they all ended the same. With me getting fired, mostly because I was constitutionally incapable of consistently coming in on time.

After two years and three jobs later I figured it was time to try something else. So I went to college, and got a two year degree for welding. For a while, things were good. I was raking in the money, more then enough to live in a high class apartment building and saved quite a bit each month. But alas, the same problem I had before school plagued me again. Eventually, I was let go. Which actually wasn't a problem thanks to the oil boom, it took me less then a day to find a new job. So I was once more set for another year.

This cycle continued over the next three years, during which I fulfilled my promise to get my parents out of debt. Which left them with a healthy cushion to boot. It felt good for a time, I was proud, that despite my failures, I was still making it in life.

It didn't last of course. I wasn't satisfied, I grew restless and eventually I left my last job on my own accord. I took a trip around the country, seeing the sights and finding myself. But when I finished my soul searching trip, I hated myself. I hated myself for something out of my control, even now I feel disgusted which feels like my skin is crawling. For reasons I dare not even think anymore.

Now here we are. At the end of this farce of a life with a bottle of booze in one hand and a high powered revolver in the other. I was here of course to end it all.

Now with that, I take one last drink from the bottle before tossing it away. I looked up one last time at the sun and bring the pistol into my mouth. I began leaning into the awkward two handed grip I had on it, with the shadow of the tree covering me as I put my finger on the trigger.

"Wait! What?" I pause as I realize something is wrong, apart from the obvious. Looking up I stare at the sun again, I was confused before I leaned over and glanced behind me. At the sun.

"What the fuck?" I said as I looked back towards the second sun, only to see it rapidly growing in size, and I realize what it was, a meteor. If I couldn't see the tail of it, that meant it was coming right at me.

"Oh! fuck me." I said simply as I dropped the gun and laid back against the tree, waiting for the end to come.

Meanwhile in the next five seconds, as I stare at the ball of fiery death headed towards me, the impossible happened and everything I thought I knew takes off out the window like a bat out of hell.

"What the hell!?" I screamed as I shot to my feet, moving faster then I ever have before and I run perpendicular to the object, for it was no meteor. What it was my mind refused to believe, but I knew the shape, the color, and the orange glow coming from the rear of it. Everything I knew told me it was a tel'tak cargo ship from stargate sg-1. However everything else I knew told me that it was impossible.

SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1

Six hours after the extinction of the Asgard race.

Colonel Samantha Carter was distraught, and ecstatic, along with a mix of countless other emotions. She was currently crawling over the Asgard upgrades recently made to earth ship Odyssey. Which was gifted to man by the late Asgard race. However it was a bittersweet experience for the colonel, as this marvelous technology came at a great cost. The life of every single Asgard in existence.

As it stands, while she was excited, and enthusiastically going over the Asgard core. She lacked her usual glow when dealing with new and exciting technology. For she was mourning the loss of a great friend, Thor. The supreme commander of the Asgard fleet had been earths greatest benefactor when it came to the Asgard high council. She couldn't even remember how many times they had saved each others lives.

Yet, despite the loss she was doing her best to learn about the gift's given to them. For in there dying moments, they had gifted mankind with everything they possessed. Absolutely everything, from there simplest of history's to there greatest technologies. It was there legacy, and it was mankind's job to protect it, at all costs.

If only she new, that before the core was in there possession for twenty four hours, they would fail that task. As she was going over a diagnostic, the door to the core room opened, and in comes a familiar face. One she has worked with since the start of her career at the sgc.

"Daniel, what are you doing here?" she asked rather confused to which Daniel just frowns.

"You need a break Sam, you've been in here for the past six hours. Come to the mess Mitchell, Vala, and Teal'c are there waiting for you." he asked with a rather pleading look in his eyes which reminded her of a hurt puppy.

Hesitating Sam sighs and nods. "I am rather hungry, I suppose I could grab a bite to-" she starts to say with a smile only to be cut off as a series of red lights start flashing and klaxons blare.

"General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle-stations, this is no drill!" a voice blares over the intercom. Sam and Daniel share a glance for a moment before they nod at each other and he took off running towards the bridge while Sam headed back to the core. She canceled the diagnostic she was running and reached for the com then linking it to the bridge.

"This is carter, whats going on?" she asks simply and a moment later general Landry responds.

"Three incoming hyperspace tracks, there speed puts them at two Goa'uld Ha'taks and a cargo ship. We are receiving a distress call from the cargo ship. Bring the main engines online and set weapons to standby Sam." general Landry orders back through the com. Sam gets to work, bringing the shields to full capacity and routing power to the engines along with the weapon systems.

"Roger that sir, engines coming online now. You will have full military thrust in ten seconds, weapons on standby and shields at 100%." Sam calls back calmly, just as the ships dropped out of hyperspace just past earths moon.

SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1-SG1

"Report, give me a sit-rep on the contact's" general Landry ordered calmly as the Odyssey maneuvered on a intercept course.

"One tel'tak and two Ha'taks, just as we thought sir." major Marks strings out calmly before going on.

"I'm receiving a distress call from the cargo ship, putting it on sir." he says as he presses a few commands on the console and a moment later the small view screen pops to life with a fuzzy image covered in static of a jaffa wearing Ba'als symbol.

"Zzzzshhh, An'ran of zzrch Tok'ra, requesting zzzchssshhh aid, zzzsch-sustained damage, zzssch reality dri-zzzsch overloading zsch cant stop-zsch host zsch dying zzzsch help" The already fuzzy transmission cuts out as the ship sustains a glancing blow from one of the Ha'taks staff cannons.

"I've heard enough, weapons to full, and blow those mother ships out of the sky!" Landry orders and marks deftly maneuvers the ship towards the Goa'uld mother ships.

"Sir, one of the mother ships is hailing us." Marks said in a concerned voice.

"On screen." Landry orders and once more the view screen flashes to life much clearer this time.

"Tau'ri scum! This is a matter of internal security for our god, move or be destroyed!" A jaffa bearing Ba'als symbol barked out before cutting the link.

"Well that was short lived. Marks, one shot a piece from the new plasma beams should do nicely." Landry orders as Marks nods and a moment later with a sound like nails on a chalkboard. Two white hot beams of hyper-condensed plasma rocket out of two of the firing ports on the odysseys hull. Each on different trajectory's with both connecting with the Ha'taks within milliseconds of each other. There golden shields flared intensely around the impact sight for a fraction of a second before collapsing altogether. Allowing the beams to move on, piercing the center of the golden pyramid at the core of the ships superstructure. Then breached there power-cores within seconds, causing them to explode in a shower of debris, pieces no bigger then a car survived.

"Well, That was even better then I thought it be." colonel Mitchell said, having arrived on the bridge seconds before Landry gave the order to fire.

"Indeed it was Mitchell, the new weapons are impressive." Teal'c says in response walking in behind him, both looking to Landry a moment later.

"Whats the status of the cargo vessel?" general Landry asked Marks.

"I'm reading slight damage to the outer hull, but there is some sort of power build up. I cant tell what kind of energy this is." Marks reports and Landry nods before pressing a few buttons on his chair console then speaks.

"Carter are you reading this? What can you tell me." general Landry asked Carter through the com.

"I'm not sure sir, I don't know what to make of it but I swear I've seen this kind of reading before though..." Carter said in a puzzled tone.

"Alright, I've heard enough beam that pilot to medical now." the general orders as marks speaks up.

"Sir! Energy levels are spiking something's happ-what the hell!?" he shouts as he hunches over his screen.

"It's gone sir." he says confused.

"Did it explode?" Mitchell chimes in.

"No sir it just.. disappeared. I don't know how to explain it..." he says trailing off, leaving them all confused...

UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF-UOF

"What the hell! I mean WHAT THE HELL!?" I screamed as I push the hammer back into the safe position. I'm standing a hundred feet away from the tree and my truck, give or take a few meters. I am unable to believe what I'm seeing as the ship, for there was no doubt in my mind that's what it was, came skimming over the treetops at the edge of the clearing getting lower and lower as it gets closer.

"Oh fuck me! NOT THE TRUCK!" I screamed out as it crashed into the ground mere feet in front of my brand new Ford F-150 2013. It sent dirt and grass flying everywhere. A few second's later bits of metal flew and tore through the middle of my baby like it was tissue paper. It kept going until it crashed into the tree where I was sitting moments ago. It only stopped when the tree was half uprooted and leaning at a near forty-five degree angle.

"What. The. Fuck!" I shout as I stare at it in disbelief for what seems like hours, but in reality was about ten seconds. When my mind started working again I gasped in air as I realized I wasn't breathing before I exhaled slowly.

"Ok... this... is happening... I... oh fuck me, time to wing it." I mutter to myself as I cock the hammer of my revolver back once more. Then I started walking forwards slowly, keeping my gun slightly raised in front of me as I approach the ship.

As I near it a panel on the side of it hisses causing me to jump back and aim at it. The panel moved out and slides to the side revealing it to be a door. From this door another impossibility appears, a man, or to be more precise a jaffa in real chain-mail armor and was holding his side where blood is clearly leaking from. The symbol of Ba'al on his forehead, which makes a perfect spot to aim for.

"Freeze! Who the hell are you!?" I shout out as the man looks up at me and his eyes flash a golden glow for a moment causing the gun to start shaking in my hands.

" **Please, help. I am an'ran of the-** " The Goa'uld started to speak when I realized something.

"Tok'ra?" I interrupted him asking in disbelief as I slightly lower my gun, still having trouble believing the situation. He merely nods in response before collapsing against the side of the hatch.

" **Please. Help. My host is dieing, I cannot save him.** " he speaks in the distorted voice I'm familiar with from the show. In response to which I just gape at him not knowing what to say as I stare for a moment.

"I... I dont know how to help you, I'm not a doctor... wait... you don't mean.. ahh... oh shit." I say as he nods when I ask causing me to flinch.

"uhhh uhh.. shit! Fuck! Shit! fucking hell!" I shout as I stomp my foot on the ground. I then turn around while putting my hands on my head and pulling my hair.

" **Please, there is not much time. My mission is of utmost importance...** " he says trailing off and I audibly gulp before turning back to him. After a moment I nod, having made up my mind.

"Ok... ok.. ill do it, but first.. tell me something only a Tok'ra would know. I am not getting body-jacked." I said causing his eyes to widen as he stares at me.

" **How do you-** " I cut him off before raising my gun at him.

"I have to be sure! Tell me... tell me who was the mate of Lantash?" I demand as I point the pistol at his head.

" **Martouf, Martouf was lantash's mate.** " He says and I sighed lowering the gun and once more setting the hammer back in safe position as I nod.

"How... how do I do this.." I ask, my hands shaking as I kneel beside him.

" **Just open your mouth and get close to me, don't bite down.** " He says simply and I sigh nodding as I do what he says.

~ **SQUELCH!** ~

"Ahhhh- **hhhh!, huh?** " I yelp out in pain pausing when my voice changes getting the same metallic undertone to it An'ran had a moment ago.

- **Thank you Micheal. The blending was successful, but im afraid I have been to badly injured, even in your body I cannot survive** \- I flinch as I hear a voice in my head, even more so when I hear what he is saying.

"Crap!" I shout to myself, as I remember the show, or more precisely what happens when a Goa'uld symbiote dies inside a host.

- **Amazing, it is all but fiction in this reality...-** I "hear" An'ran speak and I smile while laughing before freezing up when I'm hit with a wave of memory's that aren't my own. In particular An'rans last mission that ended with his arrival here.

"Oh... my... fucking... god..." I whisper out as my eyes slowly widen to epic proportions, all thought leaving my head for a moment in disbelief as my mind starts to race, thinking of all the possibility's. Everything I ever wanted, hoped for, Dreamed of!. What I used to think of as a pathetic form of escapism was now reality. The stupid fan fiction I wrote was now REAL!. I'm pretty sure I would have gone into shock if it wasn't for An'ran as my mind flew a mile a minute, anything was possible. Even that. I was ecstatic, at least until I froze up once more realizing my thoughts weren't just my own anymore, and my look of excitement slowly turns into one of horror.

\- **I am sorry Micheal. I feel your pain as if it were my own. You need not worry, I have mere moments left in this life. I will use my last moments to save you from the death you fear. Before I do I give you my support, with your knowledge you may well finally bring peace to the galaxy, and many others. Now go forth young rose and fulfill your dreams... goodbye...** \- I flinched when I hear his dying words, a few tears streaming down my face before a migraine to end all migraines hits me.

" **Ahhhh!** " I scream out in pain as I fall to my knees, my hands clenching my head as it throbs in pain. I feel An'rans essence fading from me, then his memory's hit me. Over a thousand years of experience crammed into my tiny skull. I groan as I get the highlight reel of it as major points of his life flashed before my eyes, from his birth to his final moments. All in the span of seconds.

"Fuck me. I need an aspirin..." I mumble as I slowly stand up with my head pounding. I pause as I looked at the tel'tak in front of me. Wincing in pain as another wave of memory's hit me.

"Cool. I know how to pilot that thing..." I mumble to myself before pausing mid step as I lean over and grabbed the side of the ship for support as I empty my stomach contents.

"Uhhhh... that... was to be expected I guess..." I murmured with a frown on my face as I took in these new memories.

Wiping my mouth off, I stand up straighter and sigh as I look at the ship in front of me. I Paused as the reality of the situation hits me, I mean REALLY hits me and the enormity of the tasks ahead of me are realized.

"Just how in god's name am I going to do this? How am I suppose to remember everything I need to... oh." I stop mid sentence as I start grinning like a madman.

"Alright. Lets do this." I said as thousands of possibilities were running through my mind.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I would like to thank you all for reading and giving this fic a chance, that being said id like to point out that we are only JUST getting started with it, and their will be many many "butterflys" to come, here you can already see micheals unique attitude and outlook on his situation coming to light, so without further delay, I give you:

Stargate: The Butterfly Effect chapter two.

"Aright. Lets do this." I say to myself confidently as I step inside the ship, kneeling down to An'rans previous host and grabbing the Zat'nik'tel he had on him. I also grabbed the Kara'kesh, more commonly know as the Goa'uld hand device. Stepping back I primed the Zat and shot him three times, completely disintegrating his body.

A single tear drops from my eye as I say goodbye to him as all the memory's and emotions An'ran shared with him pass through my mind. Moving inward towards the ship I pressed a button on a keypad next to the door, which promptly closed it. Heading to the cockpit I sit down in the chair and with my new-found confidence I grabbed the controls. After a moment of silence nothing happened.

"Oh right damaged ship, fuck I hope its salvageable." I think aloud as I get back up and head to the engine room. Once there I pressed a hidden button on the main power distribution node, sighing when I see its contents.

"Shit. That's not good, main crystal seems to be intact at least..." I mumble to myself quietly as I stare at the fried secondary's, thinking of what I could do to fix it. Once more I used An'rans memories to help.

"Aha! Forgot about that." I say turning around and head into the cargo bay. I was in luck, as the Goa'uld scientist who created the jump drive was planning to betray Ba'al and start his own empire in a new universe. He had loaded the "necessary" supplies to do so onto this ship, which thankfully included spare engine crystals.

"Lets see here.. gold... more gold... extra hand device.. more zats.. staff weapons... aha! Here we go spare crystals." I mumble to myself as I search through the different containers in the cargo hold before finally finding the one I'm looking for. Grabbing the crystals I need I head back to the engine room and replace the burnt out ones with the fresh set. To my satisfaction when I slide the panel back in the engine comes to life with a low hum.

"Alright! Were back in business! Lets get this show on the road!" I clap my hands together in excitement as I talk to myself, heading back to the cockpit a moment later.

Siting down I frown as I looked at the screen, which had a display of the surrounding landscape and airspace on it. As luck would have it, four red blinking icons were rapidly approaching at an altitude of twenty thousand feet.

"Of course, no way big brother missed this. He did decelerate on reentry after all, So lets have a little fun with it." I say with a wicked grin on my face as I grab the controls once more. Bringing the ship into an assent and sure enough, once I hit two thousand feet, all four craft accelerate even harder and one of them started blinking. A com indicator next to it. Taping a button on the side console I bring the channel up.

"-United States Air Force. You are hereby ordered to return to the surface and await surface teams. If you do not comply deadly force has been authorized." A voice echos through the com system and I laughed. I hit another button to open a two way channel.

"Good god man! Your first contact protocol SUUUUUUCKS!. I mean REALLY? You encounter a potential extra-terrestrial race and your first words are ordering him to land or be shot at?. Dude! where the fuck is the logic. I could blow you out of the sky from here with no effort whatsoever.

My craft outclasses your own in every possible way, yet you believe you have the authority to tell me what to do. Your lucky I'm a good guy, or I wouldn't have even warned you to back the hell off." I snap back in my best "pissed off" tone of voice I can muster. I began increasing my assent rate in the process. However a moment later all four icons started blinking red, indicating they've targeted the ship. It prompted me to open the com channel once more.

"Oh no you fucking didn't! Tell me you didn't just lock missiles on me, you stupid fuckers!" I shout out as I pulled hard on the controls, turning the ship towards them as aggressively as I can manage.

"You wanna go, lets fucking go. I think you've lived in your fairy tail long enough. So lets pop that bubble shall we? I'll show you just how fucking outclassed you are!" I say with a smile as I get more and more into the role of a genuine asshole. I was trying not to laugh my ass off as I bring the throttle up to fifty percent. Sending my ship rocketing towards the lead fighter at over six times the speed of sound.

"Who's gonna blink first asshole. The guy with a sixty-ton spacecraft with energy shields and plasma weaponry, or the prick in a atmospheric flyer made out of tissue-paper." I snarled with a smile on my face as the distance rapidly closed between us. First twenty klicks, then ten, then five, and finally one. Finally at the last possible moment, the formation scatters.

"Ha! Pussy's!" I shout out before laughing over the com.

"Lets have some fun! Tag. Your it!" I shout as I touch one of the side controls and send off a horridly aimed blast from the Al'kesh staff cannon slung underneath the ship. It missed by a mile but the point was made. Rocketing off towards the south east, I slow my speed considerably. Matching theirs but keeping three miles ahead of them.

As I do so, I hack into there com channels using my new-found knowledge to break their simple encryption systems.

"-Repeat. Target has opened fire and is headed south-east, we are now in pursuit. What are your orders." The same voice I talked to before comes over the channel.

"Copy that War-wolf. Orders are to pursue and engage, repeat, pursue and engage, target can be presumed hostile." An older voice comes across and I smile before I broke into the channel.

"Oh come on! Hostile? Really? I have a Photonic processor in control of my targeting system! If I was hostile your jets would be scrap! This is just plain fun!" I shout out into the com channel.

"Who is this! This is a secure military frequency!" The older voice shouts and I laughed.

"You did just hear me when I said Photonic processor right? I could hack your whole network if I wanted to. Oh! Maybe I should since that would be fun!" I say with glee as I smile manically, deciding at that moment to pull the biggest troll in the history of mankind.

"To answer your question good sir! You would not understand my name if I spoke it in your language. For simplicity's sake I will allow you to call me Micheal. Now, I think this planet has believed in a lie long enough eh. Lets show them undeniable proof that alien life is a reality, and just how pathetically outclassed your world's military is?" I say cutting into the channel after laughing manically one last time.

Pressing a few more switches in rapid succession I broadcast over a open civilian short range frequency.

"You hear that War-Wolf? Catch me if you can!" I shout as I maxed the engines, going to mach ten. I bring up a map of the planet before making a slight course correction, heading straight to Washington D.C.

A halo of red appears around the ships shields as the speed of the craft causes enough friction to super heat the atmosphere around the ship. It left a red tail in my craft's wake.

"God! I've never had so much fun in my life! Ladies and gentlemen of earth, if you will turn your eyes skyward you will see a tel'tak class cargo ship kicking the asses of your military's Air-Force." I shout to no one as I lower back the throttle, letting the flight of jets behind me catch up. Before they could I blasted away once more when they were only a mile away.

However the second time I do this a red warning light on the display screen. It along with an alarm klaxon started blaring as two small red diamonds detach from the lead jet and streak towards me at speeds in excess of mach five.

"Oh you sonofabitch! Your gonna regret that." I shout over the coms once more as I slam the throttle and access the targeting computer. Moments later two bolts of superheated plasma are ejected from the staff cannon at hyper sonic velocities easily hitting the missiles. It scattered them into dust as they pass through them and kept going towards the flight of jets. It caused them to scatter once more.

As they do however I reverse the throttle, coming to a full stop which caused them to overshoot me. After which I match there speed, rocketing above them by some five hundred feet. I laughed as they scattered once more pulling evasive maneuvers. Breaking with them I follow the one on the far left of there lopsided arrowhead formation and within seconds my weapons are locked on. I let fly with two blasts from the cannon, completely sheering off the left wing of the aircraft and sent it into a tumble.

Seconds later an alarm goes off as I glance at the area display and see the other three fighters behind me. They were designated in Goa'uld as 1, 3, and 4. Each of them had fired a missile at me, which caused me to laugh once more.

"That shit won't work remember?" I call over the com laughing as I once more reverse thrust and come to a standstill. I then rocket straight down and backwards, letting the missiles fly past me and self destruct. When they do I slam the throttle forward and match velocity's with the remaining three fighter jets. In a split second the cannon fires two more blasts, taking the wings off of bogeys three and four.

"Ahahaha! This is so fucking fun man! Did you see that shit! Hope your friends bailed out dude." I shout once more over the coms and glance at the area display map. Once more seeing D.C. coming up on the horizon I max the throttle, bringing me to mach ten. Just as I notice dozens of more bogeys appearing on screen.

"Oh nice! You brought some friends! This is gonna be one hell of a cluster-fuck!" I shout, pausing momentarily to change the broadcast frequency, saturating all civilian channels with it. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you turn your eyes skyward you will see a armed cargo-ship single-handily annihilating a formation of 35 of your nations most advanced atmospheric flier's." I yell over the channel as I come in over the city at a mere one thousand feet. I shattered windows with the hyper velocity shock wave produced from the sheer speed and size of the tel'tak. While breaking the sound barrier, a fiery red halo forming around the ship once more as I rocket towards the capitol building. Where I came to a dead stop the moment I get there.

"Thank god for inertial dampeners." I murmur to myself as I target and fire on the grounds around the prestigious building causing several glassy craters to form. However my fun is cut short when a warning bleep from the sensors warned me of a few dozen incoming missiles.

"Oh for fuck's sake! Really you guys!? I'm just having fun!" I shout over the open com once more as I take off at high speed. I began firing a few rounds into the Washington monument as I pass, laughing as it started to crumble. Sadly I didn't get to see the carnage as the missiles tracked closer.

"Alright, time for a demonstration." I speak as I bring the ship to a standstill, letting the missiles catch me. All of them impacting within seconds of each other and bringing my shields down by barely five percent.

"Ahahahaha! Oh god! Really!? Is that the best you got!? My turn bitches!" I shout out as I rocket upwards and gaining altitude as I set the targeting computer to automatic.

"Though with this many targets I can't guarantee, I won't hit a cockpit or two. Apologies in advance." I call out as the cannon goes into rapid fire mode. It began knocking jets out of the sky one after another, which caused me to smile as I pull evasive maneuvers.

"Thank you Duran, the upgrades are performing nicely." I mumble to myself as the squadron of jets quickly decreased in number's as they go down in flaming wrecks.

For nearly half an hour this goes on until there's only one jet left. The original pursuer who followed me from North Dakota, came to a standstill when I com him.

"Well, this has been fun. But I'm afraid its time for me to go." I say before pressing a few buttons, juicing the power of my transmission as I ascend rapidly. Now it was time for the real part of the troll.

"That has been a simply demonstration to the human race of the planet Earth in the Terran sector. A message, that you are not alone in the universe. That you are only one race among hundreds, but most importantly that not all of said races are as kind and carefree as I am. There are races out there that will not hesitate to enslave your planet. With true warships, not an armed cargo-ship like the one you faced today." I say somberly as I halt in orbit.

"That being said, you wont be forced to fight alone either. The Anunnaki are your protectors after all, though I'm sure they wont take kindly to me outing them. The fact is, you've been naive long enough. It's time you woke up to the reality around you and made plans for it." I say as I remembered the reptilian aliens from the show ancient aliens.

"I can't wait to watch as you progress, properly into space. Who knows maybe I might open up a trade-route to your world? You have many interesting technologies to trade."

"Until then War-Wolf!" I shout as I cut the com channel off and focus on the sensor screen. Which was displaying several contacts, every few seconds one would turn yellow indicating a collision course. I would have to make some slight adjustments, but in no time I was above the satellite belt.

With a deep breath I shake my head back and forth wildly. I began concentrating on the display plot, showing the planet and several dozen Grey diamonds. Each one indicating satellites above the earth with a large circular icon indicating the planet itself, and a smaller one a ways off indicating the moon. Nodding to myself I max the throttle and head for the moon, getting there in minutes.

Taking up a stationary orbit I leaned back in the chair while groaning as the stiff back of it greets me. Standing up instead, I take one more deep breath and reach into my pocket. I pulled out a crumpled pack of Camel wide menthol's. Opening it up I laughed when I see the contents of two cigarettes and my lighter.

"Better then nothing." I mutter to myself as I light up and turn towards the large pedestal in the middle of the room along with the device connected to it.

"Simple enough design.. not only can it transverse reality's but it can also view others.. last one visited.. ah there we go." I mutter to myself as I sift through An'rans memory's pressing a button a moment later. In response to which the holo-display springs to life and shows a crystal clear picture of the space between earth and the moon. I grabbed the orb like picture control then zoom in on the area the picture is centered on which displayed a small debris field. The wreckage of the two Ha'taks that pursued An'ran. But more importantly, the Odyssey. The image was at a virtual standstill. Which caused me to frown and look at the time-stamp on the edge of the circular projection.

"Well I'll be damned. Thank god for small favors." I say with a wicked grin as I see less then three second's have passed relative to An'rans crossing over into this dimension. Which indicates a rather large time differential, somewhere in the neighborhood of a day on their side equaling a year on this side.

"Alright. Lets do this... not like billions of lives are riding on me here. No pressure Micheal..." I mumble bleakly to myself as I went back to my the pilots seat and engaged the drive just as the entire ship is enveloped in a bright white light...

A/N: The main purpose of this chapter is to start introducing Micheals character and attitude and to set the tone of whats to come. Reviews and critic welcome!


	3. Chapter 3

Heres the third chapter, bit of character building for Micheal were he learns that actions have consequence. As always Reviews and Crique welcome!

SG-1SG-1SG-1SG-1SG-1SG-1SG-1SG-1SG-1SG-1SG-1SG-1SG-1SG-1SG-1

"No sir it just... disappeared. I don't know how to explain it..." He says trailing off, leaving them all somewhat baffled

Bleep!

"Wait! What the? New contact! Low lunar orbit, registering as a single tel-tak, energy signature is identical to the one we just lost sir." Marks reports much to the confusion of everyone else.

"How did it get there? It didn't enter hyperspace did it?" Mitchel asks with a puzzled look, to which Sam shakes her head.

"Impossible, we would have been able to detect the portal opening." answers am as she takes on a thinking pose.

"Marks, do me a favor, replay the distress call if you will." She asks and he nods bringing up the logs, a moment later the garbled message replays.

"Zzzzshhh, An'ran of zzrch Tok'ra, requesting zzzchssshhh aid, zzzsch-sustained damage, zzssch reality dri-zzzsch overloading zsch-"

"Stop it there, did you hear that? It sounded like he was saying reality drive! Marks, show me the energy buildup that was recorded before it disappeared." She says in a way that almost makes the gears in her head visible momentarily.

"Right, bringing them up now ma'am." he says entering a few commands prompting Sam to lean over his shoulder and inspect is display screen.

"I knew it! I have seen this energy before. Its nearly identical to that of the quantum mirror."

"So, he was saying it has a reality-drive, and this seems to confirm it. It probably activated and he took up a lunar orbit before reactivating it and coming back here." she states

"In less then a second? How is that possible?" Landry asks and Sam frowns. However shes cut off before she can answer.

"We are being hailed sir." marks says simply and Landry nods.

"Put it on the main screen." he orders simply, moments later on the viewing screen above the observation window, the picture of a young man appears, moderately overweight, with a slight stubble on his chin, and a t-shirt with the words AC-DC on it in bold red, stunning the bridge crew who were expecting a tok'ra.

"..."

"Uhh... hello?" the man speaks snapping Landry out of his stupor.

"This is general Landry of the earth ship Odyssey, with whom am I speaking with?" he says calmly watching as the mans eyes slowly widen.

"Holy shit..." he says trailing off before putting his palms on his eyes rubbing them, looking again he stares for a moment before he starts laughing.

"Mother fucking Murphy. God damn. This shit is really happening." he says as he shakes his head further confusing the bridge crew.

"Of what are you referring to?" Landry asks, as confused as everyone else.

"Its a long story sir, but I can give you the short version." He says simply.

"Now, as An'ran original transmission probably wasn't very clear, this ship is equipped with a Trans-reality drive, which due to the weapons fire from those Motherships, activated sending him to my reality were he crashed In front of me in a field in North Dakota." He says calmly

"The important part though is when he stole the ship he was mortally wounded, beyond his ability to heal, and in order to complete his mission he blended with me, though he was still to weak to survive, it is my understanding that he used the last of his strength to save me." he says with a shrug smiling at their shocked reactions.

"If you think its weird, think how I feel, reality just took a shit on me and spit out a frigging alien spaceship, or that I more or less was an alien for about five minutes." he says with a small laugh.

"Um... well..." Sam is the first to speak and I smile.

"Back to important business, I'm here to pass on An'rans message. The Gou'ld Duran serving Ba'al has created this reality drive, and he is more then likely building another one, now I'm not sure if it was chance this one lead to my reality or if it was planned, but either way, I rather not have my family and everyone I know enslaved by an alien if you catch my drift." He says as Landry and SG-1 slowly recovers. Fishing in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a red data crystal.

"Now I'm not sure how to access it, but An'ran stored everything about the device, and the coordinates of the planet Duran is on in this crystal... soooo... I'm.. assuming you guys hook this thing up to something find the bad guy and go kill him before he enslaves a planet of seven billion people?" He states mater of factually stunning the team momentarily.

"With your permission son, we will beam you to our engineering section so Carter analyze that crystal." he says looking at carter, whom nods and walks off the bridge.

"Alright, powering down shields." He answers and a moment later hes engulfed in a bright white light marked by an audible chime.

UoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoF

I gasp as I reappear in the Asgard core room, my Kera'kesh and zat still safely in place.

Colonel Carter will be down momentarily" a technician whom I recognize though whose name I cant remember says and I nod. Not two minutes later she walks through the door, which closes a moment later.

"Hello.. I don't believe I caught your name?" She asks and I nod.

Micheal, Micheal Cross." I say simply and she smiles holding out her hand which I shake.

"This is so fucking weird..." I mutter and she laughs.

"I've gotten used to weird over the years. Now, how about we take a look at that storage crystal?" she says and I nod handing over the crystal, which I know is empty. As she walks over to an interface terminal I back away into the corner, slipping my hand into my pocket I put on the Kera'kesh.

Sweat rolls down my forehead as she plugs the crystal in, checking the connection once she enters a few commands into the computer, a moment later she frowns.

"Odd. This crystal is empty..." she says looking up at me to which I smile.

"Yea... Sorry about that..." I say as I activate the personal shield and snap my hand up, shooting the two technicians with the zat.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Carter screams and I simply smile.

"Exactly what it looks like. Taking advantage of the situation Sam. Now, I'm going to have to ask you to turn on the core and activate the hologram interface." I say still smiling.

"Stop! Why are you doing this!?" She yells at me and I snort.

"Let me tell ya something Sam. You wanna know why I was in the middle of some random field in North Dakota? I was gonna have my last drink, and put this to my head." I say as I draw the .44 and motion with it.

"My life has been nothing but disappointment and setbacks. So I figured what the hell, why not its not like it could be any worse eh? And just when I'm about to pacify myself, like a gift from god, that ship lands in front of me. Do you really expect me to throw all this away and sit on the sidelines!? Bull fucking shit!" I scream as her face slowly goes pale, cocking the hammer back I aim at the technician.

"Ok, stop! No one needs to die here, I'll turn it on." she says and I smile as she goes over to the controls.

"Damn straight, you don't mess with the crazy person." I say with a manic smile.

"Don't even think of beaming me out, I can get a shot off before I'm gone." I say as the core comes on, a few moments later a hologram of Thor appears.

"You are not registered in the ships database. Please state your name." it says simply and I smile.

"Micheal Cross, And I am potentially one of earths greatest allies." I say as it freezes for a moment.

"Please state your request."

"An ally!? Really? This is an act of war! Not that of an ally Micheal!" She says and I roll my eyes.

"Please, when I'm back the IOA wont give a damn about this little incident." I say before turning back to Thor.

"Now, I need you to lock down the ship, restrict all access to ship functions to me for the next hour." I say and it nods and less then a second later the door to engineering slams shut, locking.

"It is done" it says simply

"Now, the tel'tak ship in orbit near the moon, I need you to repair it using the Asgard beaming system, and install a miniaturized version of the Asgard core and power source." I order and the image freezes again.

"What! How- you cant!" Sam stammers out and I laugh rolling my eyes.

"That Sam is my first gift to earth. Think about what I just said, discounting the core part. The Asgard beaming system can be used to create matter out of pure energy. Including but not limited to armor plating, propulsion systems, bulkheads. You can basicly make a ship with no structural integrity issues. How do you think the Asgard made there ships?" I say with a smile and she pauses as the gears in her head start spinning.

"Of course with base matter the process is much, much faster."

"It is done." the hologram speaks out and I nod.

"How do you even know that!? We've had the core for less then a day!" she shouts causing me to snort.

"What and ruin the surprise? No thanks, suffice it to say I know more about this reality then anyone has any right to." I say with another deranged smile.

"That being said, It is not my intention to make an enemy out of earth. However I cannot take the risk of indecision on your part when it comes to Duran, BILLIONS of lives are on the line Sam, and I know the first thought the IOA would have is "its not our earth, why bother?" Do you really think I'd leave the fate of my planet, my family, in the hands of people like that?" I say quietly.

"I will however be compensating you for the usage of the core. Hell, give me a little time and I bet you I could reverse the direction of this crusade in a week." I say with a smile before nodding.

"With that, I'll take my leave. Beam me to the bridge of the tel'tak." I say looking at the hologram, moments later I'm engulfed in a bright light and I'm once more on the bridge of the cargoship.

Not wasting anytime I jump into the command chair, turning slightly my hands fly across the control board for the reality drive, powering it up I lock onto the coordinates of my reality and activate it, a moment later the ship is surrounded by a blinding white energy field and it disappears from the reality.

A moment later I reappear in orbit of my moon, around my earth.

"...Holy shit... I.. I did it... I FRAKING DID IT!" I scream out as I jump up, doing my own little victory dance. As I absolutely freak out in joy. A few minutes later I've calmed down and I smile to myself as I walk into the cargo-bay of the Tel'tak, and sure enough an exact copy of the core interface is against the back wall.

"Alright... Lets do this." I say to myself as I walk up to it and access the qwerty keyboard attached to the side, in moments the Thor hologram is active.

"Please state your request Micheal." The holo-Thor speaks and I smile.

"I would like you to tap into earths satellite grid, while remaining undetected hack into the networks, finding the story's of the events leading up to my departure from this reality. Oh, and create a chair for me to sit in." I say simply as an Asgard style control chair, complete with keyboard beams itself into existence. Sitting in it I watch the mains screen as the core works, displaying the scene of my aerial battle with the united states air force.

I watch with a manic smile on my face as I listen to multiple news reports, many depicting the panicked citizens running away form the center of the city or the fall of the Washington monument after I blast it or the snippets of my conversation with the military that I broadcast on an open frequency. When I'm done I shake my head and look back to the hologram.

"Show me a star-map of habitable systems within a days travel of this planet, and highlight systems with the element neutronium, order them by the concentration." I order, and a moment later the screen changes into a small cluster of stars and I laugh when I see Alpha Centauri being one of the systems.

"Alright, set course." I order as I select the planet.

"Now... I'm going to need you to follow these next instructions to the letter. I need you to create me a replicator..." I order, going on to write its base code, its primary function to be to obey me whilst eliminating its replicating protocol unless ordered to. The next fifteen minutes fly by and before I know it were in system.

"Welp... here goes nothing." I say as I order the replicator made and head back to the cockpit were I bring the ship into the atmosphere, and marvel at how earth-like the planet is. Using the upgraded sensors from the core I land at the base of a mountain containing high quantity's of neutronium, once there I move back to the core room were the replicator is, and using the interface I order it to bring me neutronium in the form of ingots, and to stockpile naquada and trinium along with any other useful metals they encounter.

Opening the door I smile and inhale sharply, taking in the slightly odd scented air as I step out watching the replicator walk off, smiling at the sound of it as it heads toward the mountain.

Taking a cigarette out of the pack in my pocket I light up and muse for a few minutes about being the first human to step onto a different planet. When I'm done I head back inside and start working.

Over the course of the next few hours I begin familiarizing myself with the Asgard core somewhat, getting a basic tutorial from the holo-interface on how to use the control crystals, and after that I breeze through some basic ship designs, and all to quickly its vastly apparent I'm in way over my head. Not that I didn't expect such.

An hour later I access Asgardian shipyard designs, and starting with a single ship dry-dock command the growing number of replicators to build one, and to later build an Asgardian O'Neill class battleship, the only modification being the addition of the plasma beam weapons, which in itself with my limited knowledge took much questioning of the hologram, and an hour and a half of work. When finished I'm thoroughly exhausted, as I had been awake for over sixteen hours. Using the core I beam a bed into the cargo bay, and modify the dry dock command facility to contain a lavish set of quarters, before I dim the lights and fall into bed, passing out moments later.

I awake with a start, confused and scared at my unfamiliar surroundings, in seconds it all comes flooding back to my and I fall back smiling, after a few minutes I get up and use the cramped head of the tel'tak before I sit down at the core and bring the lights back up, checking on the progress of the replicators I'm impressed to see there living up to there name, as there's already a hundred thousand of them, and that they've begun excavating the area for the dry-dock.

Getting up I step outside the ship and breath in the fresh air, looking around I see a long chain of replicators heading into the mountain, and another coming back out dropping of ingots of metal near a large pit taking formation fifty or so feet in front of me. Once back inside I check the quantity of materials gathered so far and my jaw drops slightly in awe of the sheer tonnage of it all, thankfully there was a few dozen pounds of neutronium to. Ordering them to bring it to me I activate the hologram once more.

Sitting down at the core I program the nanites, using the interface once more to help me I construct the perfect augmentation for my body, bones coated in neutronium, hyper dense musculature, and a strengthened cardio-vascular system, with the nanites acting as an incredibly efficient oxygen delivery system not to mention an ability to near instantly heal any injury. Most importantly, to me anyway the fuel for the muscle conversion will be the excess fat in my system, of which there was plenty. By the time I'm finished the replicators have brought the twelve pound ingot into the ship, and have begun converting it, I watch as they take bites of the ingot and sit still for a few moments, only to have a silvery substance flow out of their "mouths" and into the syringe I beamed into existence. By the time there finished there's twelve syringes full of the nanites.

Picking one of them up I take a deep breath, psyching myself up. "Alright Mike.. no pressure.. lets do this." I say to myself as i hold out my arm and slowly, ever so slowly push the needle into one of the veins in my arm. When I'm satisfied I've done it correctly I push down the plunger, gasping when I see the veins around the needle turn a silvery grey, spreading about up my arm, by the time the syringe is empty they've reached my heart and I gasp as the oddest sensation comes over me. I feel my skin tightening around me, and I could swear I could feel my _bones._ I breath deeply and for the first time in years I fill my lungs to capacity, and over probably as the damage done by years of smoking is undone in an instance, taking my shirt off I watch with a manic grin on my face as my once overly pudgy chest shrinks and tightens, forming a perfect eight pack, and for the first time in my life I see what its like to have a flat stomach. Patting it I smile at how firm my abs are. Looking at my arms I flex and my eyes bulge at how defined my biceps are. With a grin I get up and go to the core, beaming a mirror into existence I look into it and smile for a moment. However as glorious as the new body is, its still flawed, incorrect. Wrong. Causing me to frown shaking my head.

"It will do for now." I say simply as I stretch out and put my shirt back on grinning at hour loose it is, and for the first time I concentrate on the thought of the nanites, and mentally order them to shrink it. Which they do so, and in moments its tight across my chest, and the fabric is slightly thicker.

"Alright, lets go for a test drive." I say as I once more step out of the ship, stretching out slightly I take off at a dead sprint and burst out laughing at the sheer speed I achieve, and even more so at the lack of effort. Past the pit and up the mountain I run, not even breaking a sweat, euphoric, I don't stop until I reach the snow line, surprised as I don't even feel cold, looking back down the I gasp at the majestic view, the glint of the replicators, the small form of the cargo ship, and I brown patch of earth were the dry-dock is taking shape. Breathing in the crisp air I start back down the mountain at a slow jog as to not loose my footing. By the time I get back to the ship the distant binary stars of Alpha Centuri are in the middle of the sky, getting back into the cargo ship I head to the core and sit down and start typing, I notice my hands flying across the keyboard at a speed I've never been able to achieve before, smiling I carry on, querying it and smiling in satisfaction as I order it to replicate a few hundred thousand American dollars in the form of hundred dollar bills, stuffing my wallet as full as I can get it I put the rest in a replicated briefcase and head to the cockpit.

Bringing the ship into orbit I set course back to earth and engage the hyper drive, once in route I concentrate on my nanites and link them to the beaming control of the ship, after that I just sit back and wait, lighting a replicated cigarette, having scanned my last one into the cores memory, staring out the view screen I watch as the swirling purplish lights of hyperspace whiz by. Before I know it the ship drops out of hyper and I engace the cloak, bringing the ship into a Geo-stationary orbit over Las Vegas I beam myself down into a deserted ally.

A cab ride later I'm at the MGM Grand. Walking in I cant help but grin at the lavishness of it all. Waiting my turn I hit the check in counter and ask for the presidential suite for the next two weeks, paying nearly ten thousand I head up to the room, marveling at how lavish it is.

Looking to entertain myself for a while I turn on the massive television that took up the majority of one of the walls, immediately flipping it to a news channel I smiled as footage from the "Alien attack" was played. It consisted mostly of footage of windows exploding due to the hypersonic shock wave from me rocketing by at mach ten. There was some grainy and somewhat shaky footage of my coming to a sudden stop above the white house and blasting the grounds around it. It was only viewable for about three of the blasts before the cameraman started running.

"Oh god that's fucking gold!" I laugh out loud as I watch. Turning the volume up I start listening in, smiling at the reporters words.

"-world is still in shock after the undeniable proof of presumably hostile Alien life after Sundays attack on the white house grounds and Washington monument. That shock is already turning into panic due to both the ease of which the attacker repelled human response craft, and alleged claims from the attacker that this was nothing more then an armed cargo vessel." The female news-woman's voice calls out.

"Already we can see the beginnings of food and fuel hoarding, with supermarket shelves being emptied and gas stations running dry." The Image shifts to that of for-mentioned store shelf's and signs outside of gas stations with a hastily scribbled "NO GAS" drawn on it.

"Ha! So predictable." I mutter as I watch.

"In an amazing turn of events there were no military casualty. Our analysts believe this not to be luck as many are calling it, but an intentional outcome pointing in the direction of benevolence from the pilot of the ship."

"This belief is somewhat criticized however due to the casualty's sustained when the Washington monument collapsed, a family of tourists consisting of A Mother and Father from Texas along with their six month old daughter..."

In an instant, The world stops.

"W-what?" I say aloud as if it would change what I just heard. Like it would change the fact that I was responsible for their deaths... the fact that I had murdered them.

..

…

…..

NOPE.

Before I even realize what I'm doing I'm on my feet and heading to the kitchenette, bypassing the full size fridge I open the mini-fridge on the counter and reach for one of the bottles filled with amber liquid, I pause however as I realize what I'm doing.

….

"Fuck it." I say simply as I grab the bottle and uncork it before taking a large drink, and holy FUCK that's strong!

Doing a double take I look at the label, Johnny walker huh? So that's what scotch taste like.

"Not bad." I say simply as I take another large gulp and head back to the chair I had placed in front of the T.V. Pausing when I hear them talking about how the ship looked identical to the tel'tak of the Stargate series.

"Pfft, it is you 'tards." I say with a smile as I take another large drink, feeling myself flying through "buzzed" and heading straight towards "piss-faced" laughing as I find out that the artist who designed the tel'tak for SG-1 was dead, and that they were theorizing that he had an encounter with one that inspired the design.

The more I watch, the more I drink as I see the carnage and chaos I've created until I realize that in the span of fifteen minutes I've drank half the bottle, and that I was far past the point of giving a shit.

It doesn't last of course, being drunk after all tends to come with a lot of side effects, such as wicked mood swings. Add that to a Bi-polar diagnoses aaandd...

"MOTHER FUCKER!" I scream out as I throw the now almost empty bottle at the television as the new report refocuses on the family that I had killed.

"Why goddammit!" I shout at the broken TV that was somehow still playing audio.

You know that saying? Don't ask questions you don't wanna hear the answer to? I guess that applies when your talking to yourself as well.

"Because of me. Because I'm a freaking idiot! What the hell did I expect to happen when I blew up a fucking NATIONAL MONUMENT! Jesus H Christ Micheal!" as I scream at myself, having drunk myself piss-faced in record time, reality, as much as I hate to use the word, starts setting in. With it, the high that I had been riding since I learned of the reality drive starts fading.

"Holy fucking shit... I just broke into the most advanced and secure military ship in existence and STOLE the fraking Asgard CORE! The fuck is wrong with me!?" I berate myself as I start thinking of just how many things could have gone wrong.

If I had failed...

"I probably would have shot myself now that I think about it." I mumble.

But then what? Yea I would be dead so they'd be nothing I could do, but what would happen to my earth? The seven BILLION people that live here? I wasn't lying to Sam when I said I trust the IOA about as far as I could throw the Tel'tak...

"Jesus fucking Christ Micheal..." I mutter once more as I realize just how much was riding on that stupid flip of the coin decision.

Over the course of the next hour or so, It really starts setting in what kind of power I now have in my possession. When I realize that if I wanted, not only could I literally destroy the planet, but I could blow up the whole frigging solar system the weight of the responsibility of such power hits me.

"What in Gods name did I get myself into..." I say aloud as I stare at the remains of the TV summing up my new situation quite nicely.

I'm unsure of how long I sit there, my mind blank but apparently its long enough for me to start sobering up, and as the haze in my mind clears the very beginnings of an idea start forming in my head. With the sun now starting to set I sigh as I stand back up, looking around and frowning at the state of the TV.

"That's gonna be a hell of a repair bill... unless..." I mutter to myself as an idea pops up overriding my thoughts with curiosity on either or not it was possible to repair it with the nanites I had in my body.

"Lets see here." I say simply as I walk over to it and set my hand on the center of the cracked area, mentally willing the billions of machines into action, watching as a silvery liquid flows from my hand into the TV, defying gravity as the cracks start sealing themselves. It takes a grand total of thirty seconds before the device is in perfect working order and the silver flows back into my hand.

"If only they did that to themselves..." I mutter as I turn around. Its this thought that starts forming a picture in my mind, of a world were things like that were common place, were the standard of living was far, far above what it is in this time.

"I could do that..." I realize as I look back at the TV, which is droning on about riots in Vatican city, sending another pang of regret to my very core.

"Right... now how to do it..." I mutter as I look around the room, wanting to change the channel to something less heavy and serious. Finding the remote on the end-table I start channel browsing as I attempt to go over how I would make that wish a reality in my mind.

Ironically enough the act of trying to avoid the reminder of what I did turns out to be able to decided my next course of action, for as I'm channel hoping I come across something that would be EXACTLY what I needed at this very moment, and thanks to the reality drive, it was within my reach.

"This is gonna take some getting used to..." I mumble to myself as I stare at the last few minutes of the movie, smiling when it practically writes my introduction into it.

"Right then. Question is do I go now?" I ask myself as I think about it.

"Not like I don't have years for every day in the gate reality... fuck it. I need to unwind." I say to myself with a smile as I decided to take it easy for a while and live it up like I had originally planed on when I picked Vegas as my Destination.

Over the course of the next few hours I go about preparing for my debauchery, ordering a suit and a larger billfold, and eating dinner at the hotel buffet, before calling a cab and heading to the casinos, were I live life in true Vegas style, blowing over fifty grand before I hit the slot machines, were using my nanites to alter the computer inside of them I score a three million dollar jackpot. Taking it all in cash I head back to the hotel.

Over the next two weeks I repeat this process scoring over twenty million, making sure to hit up different casinos each night along with using a fake I.D. courtesy of a little computer work with the core. Even purposely blowing copious amounts to keep me kneecaps intact so to say, the money is just the start though as I also win a sports car, and my own private jet in a few poker games that were more then likely illegal. On the day I check out I head to a bank and deposit ten million of my earnings and wire it to my parents account. Before taking my leave, using a gas station bathroom I beam myself back to the tel'tak and head back to the shipyard, halfway there I receive a signal stating the O'Neill has been completed

Arriving at the planet I descend into the atmosphere, doing a flyby of the O'Neill I marvel at the sheer size of it, at 1500 meters in Length and a width of 700 it is truly massive. Landing the ship in its small shuttle bay I head for the nearest control council and beam myself to the bridge, were I get to work, recalling all replicators to the ship I order them to act as an extra layer of armor plating, regenerative to a degree as the blocks can move to replace destroyed ones. A quarter of them I keep intact for maintenance work inside the ship, and to act as emergency repair bots. But there first order of duty is to detach the reality drive from the tel'tak and put it in the main engineering room. While its being connected I beam up the enormous amount of naquada trinium and neutronium into the ships cargo holds, along with a fair amount of rare earth elements like gold and silver. Finally when everything finished and the interface with the drive is complete I activate it and enter my reference material into the database. And from there I sit back and wait, replicating myself a lunch which I had scanned into the database, and thanks to my nanites I could eat as much as id like. When I'm done I light up a smoke, halfway through the computer beeps indicating its found the reality I'm looking for.

"Alright. Here we go..." I say as I engage the hyper drive and head to earth, getting there in less then a second, dropping out behind the moon I cloak and head into orbit, looking down I sigh.

"Goodbye. Mom, Dad. I'll come back for you. I promise." I say to myself before I activate the jump drive, and with an enveloping flash of light, the reality shift and I'm left in the same spot in the same orbit of the same planet, with one crucial difference.

A/N. Hope it was satisfactory! Does anyone have a guess what the difference in this earth is? Ill give you a hint, when he decided to visit the song "howling" by the black keyes was playing over the TV


	4. Chapter 4

AN

And here we are! chapter Four hot off the editors press! i hope you all find it satisfactory!

this one beta'd by Golum936 over at the spacebattles creative forums!

UoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoF

I light up a smoke as I watch the heavy New York traffic pass by, waiting for a series of events to play out I smile when I see the two men I'm looking for exit the building and head to a waiting Limousine. As the approach a chauffeur gets out and opens the back door for them, stopping at as one of them motions for the other to enter the limo.

"After you senator." An older man with gray hair says to a slightly taller and much younger man in a pristine business suit. Pausing, the younger one looks at him and holds out his hand.

"Thanks for stopping by Carl." he says politely.

"Give us a second" the man, now identified as Carl motions to the chauffeur, whom steps away.

"I thought it was supposed to make you smart, this isn't smart." Carl says, clearly displeased somehow.

"You really don't know what you just bought do you?" The younger gentleman retorts, his tone somewhat sarcastic.

"You know, I don't think you understand, there's no scenario in which you do the dance and lead this life. Were you don't work for me." Carl spits out, clearly angered.

"No scenario? I see every scenario I see fifty scenarios, that's what it does Carl. It puts me fifty moves ahead of you, work for you ever again? You'd be my bitch." he says, adding emphasis to the last four words as if they were a common fact.

"You'll run out." Carl reply's simply.

"You'll die."

"Who says I'll die? Who says I can't stop taking the drug? Who says I can't ask the drug how to get off the drug? There's a thought. Ask the drug how to tell the drug how to fuck itself." he spits out.

"Good luck with that. Call me when the headaches begin." he says simply as he gets into the limo, "We'll talk." he says sitting down.

"I don't think so... don't forget to vote." The younger man says closing the door on him.

As he drives off the main glances around and smiles, thinking to himself.

"Edward? You good?" a dark skinned man asks from the door of the building.

"Yea" he says simply.

It's at this point I snuff out my cigarette and walk up to him, standing beside him I look across the street.

"Quite the predicament you find yourself in Edward." I say simply, not looking at him though I feel his eyes on me.

"I'm sorry do I know you?" he asks and I smile shaking my head

"No I don't believe you do, but you will. This is the start of a great friendship, believe me." I say only just now looking at him, I watch as his eyes flick across my face, analyzing me.

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe you know who I-"

"NZT" I say simply cutting him off watching as his mouth snaps shut and his eyes narrow.

"Who are you." he demands and I smile.

"You can call me mike, but the important thing is, I know about your problem, and more importantly I can fix it for you, permanently." I say with a smile.

"By all means, go on." he says simply after a moment of silence and I smile at him, grabbing a cigarette from my pack and lighting up.

"I have in my possession certain advanced technology, technology that with a single sample I could replicate a limitless supply of your miracle pill for you. But of course that would be to simple, there's still the dosage problem, the horrible side effects and most importantly the problem of death when abruptly stopped. Give me a day or two and I could make all those problems go away." I say simply as I take another drag and look across the street.

"How do I know I can trust you?" he says simply and I smile.

"You don't." I state.

"But if you will walk with me for a moment I can prove everything I just said is true." I say simply as I head off down the sidewalk, hearing his footsteps behind me I know he's following. A half block later I turn into a dead end ally and stop, looking around I smile.

"Take a deep breath."

"Wha-" he starts as I put my hand on him, a moment later we're beamed to my ship, which I had fondly named the Thor.

"-AT!?" he shouts out the last half syllable as our surroundings instantaneously change.

"WHAT THE HELL MAN!?" he shouts looking around.

"This is-!" I smile and cut him off.

"An Asgard O'Neill class battleship? Ya, I figured you would make the connection that fast." I say with a smile as he stares at me in shock.

"But how..." he says, squinting his eyes as he starts pacing.

"As I'm sure you it will click before I finish, I'll just say Trans-Reality drive, Go'uld under Ba'al, stolen by Tok'ra, crash landed in front of me." I say simply skipping half the story.

"Dear god! Do you realize what you could do with this?" he half shouts and I smile.

"Yes I do, and I don't at the same time mister Morra, hence the reason why I'm here. Now if you will be so kind to give me a pill I can scan it, take it and realize this ship's full potential." I say and he nods, walking over to me as he reaches into his coat, pulling out a small black bag and pulling a pill out of it and handing it to me. I then pull a molecular scanner out of my pocket and sweep it over the pill before taking it.

Less then two minutes later I gasp as it hits me.

"Holy shit." I say simply as I remember everything I had ever experienced, all the classes that I half slept through, all the lectures I had listened to, all the science channel documentary's. Most importantly however, it all makes sense.

"It's a good feeling" Eddy says simply and I nod.

"Le'ts get this show on the road." I say simply as I head over to the command console and plug the scanner into it.

"Aaaaaand... hm. Yup. Figured." I say as I look at the results.

"What?" Eddy says in a worried voice to which I just snort.

"Nothing, its still Greek to me. Imma have to give myself a crash course on molecular Bio-chemistry, Shouldn't take more then a half hour to figure out how it does what it does and how to improve it. Then again I could be wrong, depends on how fast I can speed read." I say simply as my hands start flying over the keyboard connected to the command chair with a new-found precision thanks to the typing lessons that were now second nature.

Bringing up an interface to the core I type in my query's and requests for information, spawning a several thousand page monstrosity of a explanation.

"Okay, maybe an hour. Do you wanna make that lunch you have? I can give you com device to get ahold of me when you're free again." I ask, prompting him to glance at his watch and frown before he looks back at the screen almost pleadingly.

"As much is I want to stay, and believe me I REALLY want to see how this stuff ticks, I can't just disappear into thin air..."he says before trailing off and looking at me.

"How do I know your going to keep your end of the deal? That you won't just zip off to god knows where now that you have NZT?" he asks, causing me to frown.

"Ah, I honestly didn't even think of that, if that fact isn't enough how about... this." I say as I turn back to the screen and minimize the current page and access the scanner readings again. A few commands later a small stand appears between us, seconds later a large container the size of a shoe box appears on it.

"A show of faith. Right there is one hundred years worth of NZT-48, more then enough to see your through the rest of your natural lifetime at regular dosage." I say with a nod to him watching as he smiles and steps forward, unlatching and opening the containing for a half second before closing it and nodding.

"Sorry, as I'm sure you know, I've been screwed over a few to many times as of late." he says and I nod.

"Alrighty, now is there any specific point you want me to drop you off at?" I ask as I hit a few commands on the core and replicate what appears to be a standard smart-phone of the era. Which in reality was a subspace com linked directly to the Thor.

"Ahhh..." he says as he looks at his watch again.

"I'd prefer not to keep such precious cargo with me at a public place, if you catch my drift." he says and I nod.

"Your condo then?" I ask getting a nod from him.

"Yea, I still have time to catch a cab." he says simply and I nod as I stand up and grab the "phone" handing it to him.

"Alright then Edward. I hope this is the start of something great." I say with a smile as I hold out my hand, which he gasps in a firm shake.

"I look forward to hearing what you want to accomplish here, I can't think much of anything is out of your reach now." he says and I smile nodding.

"Right then, just "call" the number saved on the device when you are someplace private and I'll beam you up here, when should you be free by the way?" I ask as he looks at the com.

"It was gonna be a late night but now? I can clear everything past five." he says and I smile.

"Great, I look forward to hearing from you." I say with a nod as I turn back to the Terminal and enter a few commands in moments, locking the transporter onto a point in his condo and beaming him there.

"Right then... that could have gone worse." I say simply as I bring the page about NZT back up and start flipping through it rapid fire, barley spending a second on each page.

It takes me exactly sixty-one minutes to finish the document, when I'm done with it however I understand every facet of NZT, what it did and how it achieved that effect, along with unintended effects to obtain that outcome.

"Sweet Jesus." I mutter simply as I go over everything mentally, it was a miracle Edward was still alive if the movie was accurate about him doubling or even tripling up on dosages.

To put it in perspective, NZT was the biological equivalent to running an engine, in this case the brain, on pure Nitrous Oxide when it was designed to be used with regular gasoline. The long term effects are quite detrimental, and if the simulations I was running after finding this out were any indication, constant usage of it would "burn out" the engine as it were, and while it would take another ten years I had no intention of kicking the bucket by the time I was thirty two.

"Alright, let's get to work." I say with a smile as I crack my knuckles and start typing with incredible speed, my hand occasionally zipping to the mouse.

With my new found knowledge and ability the work was amazingly simple, in my mind at least. The solution was a simple one, I was refining the process in with the primary enhancement compound of the drug was delivered to the brain, thereby eliminating side effects in the process. It was akin to using a proper scalpel for surgery, rather then the butcher knife the current iteration of it was.

Time ceases to exists as I work on the drug, removing and adding compounds were needed, by the time I'm finished with the first half of the process over two hours have passed.

"Good lord." I mutter to myself as I stand up and crack my back and joints, muttering to myself about the ergonomics of the controll chair.

"Right, onto step two." I mumble as I sit back down.

The process I was referring to was that of adding a regenerative compound that was optimized to heal nervous tissue. To use another analogy it was similar to overclocking an engine or CPU, you needed a proper cooling system to go with it to prevent damage. While the refinement of the drug did the majority of fixing that, long term use would still significantly reduce ones expected lifespan. Not to mention Edward's use of the obsolete form required the addition of a "repair" mechanism in order to undo the damage it had done to his brain.

This process takes far less time, as it was quite simple to add the compound to the mix. All I really had to do was to run some simulations to make sure there were no unintended interactions between the two.

End result? NZT-49, all the pros of its predecessor with none of the cons. And thanks to the refinement it was substantially more powerful, about five times to be precises.

Once it's finished, I order the materialization of several large bottles of it, complete with phony prescription, along with an extra set of just the regen drug for Edwards use.

With a mental command I order my nanites to purge the current compound from my system as I take one of the perfected pills. The result is quite spectacular, as once it fully hits my system my perception warps for a moment, as if time was slowing down, my vision warping giving the room the effect of stretching before suddenly bouncing back.

"Holy hell!" I shout to no one as I once more see and know everything available to me. This time however I barley even have to try to think about something before I know and remember all, it was just there, and it was glorious.

My moment is interrupted however when the com indicator bleeps at me from the terminal prompting me to glance at the time.

"Damn, time really does fly." I say simply as I answer the com.

"How's tricks Eddy?" I say flippantly with a smile as I lock onto his com signal.

"Quite well thank you, save for being unable to focus on anything not related to you or that ship." he says prompting a laugh from me.

"Understandable, I did drop the proverbial ton of bricks on your head."

"That's about the biggest understatement I've ever heard Mike." he fires back causing me to smile.

"Ehh, what can I say? It's a skill. Now, you someplace private?"

"About as private as humanly possible, I'm in the panic room at my condo." he says and I nod.

"Alright then, beaming you up." I say simply as I cut the line and hit the transport command, and with the signature light and hum of the Asgardian transport system he's back on the bridge.

"Right then. First things first, take two of these." I say passing him one of the bottles with the regen compound.

"What is it?"

"It's a compound designed to regenerate brain tissue. Long story short, NZT was burning out your brain, on the current dose it would have completely burnt out within the next ten years. In fact, due to upping said dose those few times it is highly unlikely you would last that long." I say, shrugging at the slightly horrified look he gives me as he does what I said.

"That being said, I've perfected the delivery system of the primary compounds that enhance neural function and eliminated the side effects of the old system, along with adding the regen compound to the regular dose to keep any burnout from happening. I'm giving you the extra to undo the damage of the past year and a half." I say as I pick up the other bottle with the enhanced standard version of the drug in it.

"Now, I would wait to take one until your normal twenty four hour period is up. However, if your undergo enhancement with the use of nano-machines they can purge the current iteration from your system instantly, allowing you to take one now, I would highly recommend this for a few reasons. Mainly that they can keep you in perfect health for the rest of your natural lifetime. Not to mention they will more then likely save your life someday as it is highly probable you will be the target of several assassination attempts." I explain as I inspect his face, looking for any give as to what he's thinking.

"That would be preferable." he says simply, "Besides, after today I suppose assassins are that much more likely, I always knew it would be a fact of life anyway. There's going to be a lot of people out there that are going to hate the changes I want to implement, some of them more extreme then others." he finishes and I nod.

"I'm going to have to agree with you there, though if you agree with what I have to say, most of those attempts will more then likely come from the home-front, not from any foreign entity..." I say trailing off waiting for him to take the bait.

"Alright, I'll bite. What are you thinking?" he asks simply, all pretenses gone.

"Tell me, have you ever heard the myth of the Phoenix?" I ask, holding back a smile at his frown.

"Well that's not ominous at all..." he mumbles and I nod.

"It's going to take a while to explain everything, but the short of it? You want to "fix" this country into what it is supposed to be yes? At least that's the primary hypothesis I know of. My plan on the other hand? Let it run its course, its had a good run. Two-hundred and thirty five years is nothing to laugh at. But it's clear that it's aging, dying. Some say you can already smell the rot coming off of it." I state, pausing for a half second to gauge his reaction, which seems contemplative before going on.

"What I want Mr Morra, is to create something beautiful. In order to do that however things have to change, and while the nation is already headed toward the inevitable end it has wrought itself, I do not have the time to wait for it to happen naturally." I say with a fairly clear implication.

"Are you telling me you want me to help you destroy this country?" he says rather stunned.

"No Edward, I want you to help me destroy what is left of this country, if you can still call it that." I say somewhat grimly.

"And what pray tell, do you plan on doing with the remains?" he says fairly skeptically, prompting me to smile with the knowledge that I have him hooked.

"Here is what I have in mind..."

Six weeks later.

"Good mourning America, I'm Diane Sawyer, and for today's top story we have what many are calling, the second coming of Edward Morra, a true rags to riches story. This young man won his millions in Vegas, and in just five short weeks he transformed it into billions. Who is this mystery man you may ask? Hailing from the small town of Minot, North Dakota. He is quickly becoming a legend in Wall street, he is Alexander Cross.-" zsch.

I smile to myself as I cut off the newscast and get back to work in my own personal command center in the New York stock exchange, grinning lightly as the usual crowd marvels as my fingers fly over the keyboard at five hundred words a minute, occasionally zipping to the mouse and back.

"How does he do it?" I hear one ask.

"It's impossible." another says and I smile as I keep going

What they don't know though, is that as I'm working magic on the worlds stock exchange. I'm looking at another image, fed into my optic nerves by my nanites directly from the Thor. I'm flashing the page after page of the core reading it and memorize it under a second before i flip to the next one.

I keep this cycle up for the next four hours before I shut everything down and get up, rubbing my eyes slightly. I walk out of the building, smiling as people subtly part before me, walking out of the building I head to the waiting limousine. Stepping into it I look at the other passenger and nod.

"Senator." I say simply.

"How's tricks today mike?" he asks and I smile.

"Another 4.2 billion in the bag, at this rate it won't be long before Gates is asking me for a loan." I say with a smile as I reach for the bottle of chilled champagne in between us, pouring myself a glass I nod to him.

"Good work. And on the flip side?" he asks, referring to my progress decoding the core.

"That's coming along a hell of a lot slower, it's the cumulative knowledge of a race millions of years old after all. I do however understand every working system behind the current generation of technology, and I know how to replicate it. But I'm still a ways from there earlier stuff. Overall I've only have about a tenth of a percent figured out, but I'm working on it." I say simply and he nods

"Good work Mike. Things are coming along nicely." he says with a smile and I nod.

"On my end I'm sure you already know thanks to the media. Painting the current administration as the bad guy is an easy thing to do, paving the way to an election, well that's another entirely. Politics is a dangerous game, move too far too fast without a solid foundation and you crumble, too slow and you stagnate. Lucky, I have a solid foundation."

"Of course. Anything you need I can get you, untraceable funding is easy when you have a crystalline based quantum computer thousands of generations ahead of the current bleeding edge." I say with a smile as I take another drink.

"Well, soon to be hundreds anyway. I plan on unveiling the worlds "first" photonic processor, not to mention crippling all the competition in the process."

"Looks like we're at your stop, see you in another two weeks then, eh partner?" he says and I nod smiling as I get out of the limo in front of my high rise condo, one of the most expensive in the city. Walking into it I smile and wave at the doorman and head to the elevator, swiping my key card to unlock the button to my floor, I head up.

Once there I take off my jacket and plop down on the leather sofa, pulling my laptop up from the coffee table, which just so happens to be enhanced with fore-mentioned quantum computing processors.

I get to work, my hands flying across the keyboard as I begin building the foundations of my soon to be empire. Founding it as a corporation under the name of "The Union", I start purchasing property on the California coast. Many with buildings and warehouses already present, nearly all of them secluded and unused. Thanks to this I have the Thor use its matter-stream synthesizer to upgrade these buildings, bringing them up to the world's standard. Which was fairly advanced considering what they had to work with, security systems were enhanced with Asgard scanners, disguised of course. On the coast next to the complex was a large dry dock, which was also enhanced with modern robotic construction, this I had to have installed manually due to how exposed it was but all it took was a little money.

Powering this massive complex was a miniaturized nuclear reactor putting out more then enough power to supply the complex and then some. The next order of business was personnel, it was far more difficult and time consuming then I would have liked as there was a need for the strictest confidentiality, but in just over three months I had hundreds of researchers working for me.

Supplying them with the base outline of a photonic processor several hundred times faster then the worlds fastest super computer and the size of a personal chip. I leave out just a few key components and leave the answer to them in my "notes" putting this lab under the name of "Union R&D", I let them go to work.

The next lab I operate under the title "Union Alloys", this one I supply them with the recipe of a titanium steel carbon alloy. It is five times lighter and stronger then steel, which though inferior to pure trinium, was ground breaking compared to the standards I was working with. The next alloy I give them uses a small percentage of naquada, which I had arranged to be "discovered" in certain meteorite deposits around the world. Allowing for the direct transfer of heat to energy, which was groundbreaking as it allowed for fifty percent energy transfer, while current steam turbine methods only captured about seven or eight percent at most.

And for the last lab I set it up under the ticker "Union Bio-chem", which are dedicated to the production of bio-fuels, several taken straight out of the Asgard database. Starting with a basic algae based fuel similar to gasoline, though with nearly twice the energy potential, and thus double the efficiency. Along with a nitris oxide based fuel, to this I leave the recipe and the basics of a atmosphere conversion unit that could take the nitrogen and oxygen from the very air around us and turn it into nitris.

UoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoF

Three years later.

Annual Science conference.

M.I.T. Cambridge Massachusetts.

I stand nervously as I look out over the hall from the edge of the stage, hiding by the curtain. Psyching myself up to wow the world's greatest scientific minds, including but not limited to Stephen Hawking, Neil Degrasse Tyson, and Michio Kaku. All of whom happened to have been my personal heroes growing up.

"First time is always rough." a voice says from behind me and I turn around to see Edward, to whom I nod.

"Yea, it's not every day you get to mind break some of your greatest heroes." I say with a smile just as the lights dim.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our next presenter, the CEO of The Union." a deep booming voice rings out and I walk out onto stage smiling as the spotlight doesn't come up, and music starts playing.

 _Come gather 'round people_

 _Wherever you roam_

 _And admit that the waters_

 _Around you have grown_

 _And accept it that soon_

 _You'll be drenched to the bone_

 _If your time to you_

 _Is worth savin'_

 _Then you better start swimmin'_

 _Or you'll sink like a stone_

 _For the times they are a-changin'._

As the lyrics start a projector turns on, playing a montage, starting with a horse and rider, before switching to a carriage, morphing to early films of a model T driving down a dirt road.

 _Come writers and critics_

 _Who prophesize with your pen_

 _And keep your eyes wide_

 _The chance won't come again_

 _And don't speak too soon_

 _For the wheel's still in spin_

 _And there's no tellin' who_

 _That it's namin'_

 _For the loser now_

 _Will be later to win_

 _For the times they are a-changin'._

A picture of a ancient drawing displays itself, depicting the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, who fashioned wings out of feathers and wax. It then shifts to Leonardo Davinche's schematic of a corkscrewed flight machine. Then to a old black and white film of a man on a bicycle with wing like flaps attached to it. From there it shifts to the film of the Wright brothers first flight, and then on to a bi-plain, which morphs into a P-51 mustang from world war two, shifting videos it displays a German made me-262, the first jet powered fighter aircraft, from there an f-14 tomcat is displayed before it fades and the music picks back up

 _Come senators, congressmen_

 _Please heed the call_

 _Don't stand in the doorway_

 _Don't block up the hall_

 _For he that gets hurt_

 _Will be he who has stalled_

 _There's a battle outside_

 _And it is ragin'_

 _It'll soon shake your windows_

 _And rattle your walls_

 _For the times they are a-changin'._

This time Victorian era paintings of whaling ships are displayed, followed by pictures of oil powered street lamps and lanterns moving onto the first pictures and video of crude oil leaking to the surface. From there video of the first big strike in Texas with crude spouting out of a rig a hundred feet into the air. Then color video of today's gas stations and fuel pumps and a few shots of electric and hydrogen cars.

 _Come mothers and fathers_

 _Throughout the land_

 _And don't criticize_

 _What you can't understand_

 _Your sons and your daughters_

 _Are beyond your command_

 _Your old road is_

 _Rapidly agin'_

 _Please get out of the new one_

 _If you can't lend your hand_

 _For the times they are a-changin'._

The next montage displays various forms of energy, starting with cave paintings of the first era of fire, to ancient paintings of blacksmiths shoveling coal, onto sail ships powered by wind and from there a railroad steam engine then onto a coal powered electric plant, to pictures of oilfields with flames spouting out of the wells. Finally to modern marvels like the hoover damn, wind farms and nuclear power plants.

 _The line it is drawn_

 _The curse it is cast_

 _The slow one now_

 _Will later be fast_

 _As the present now_

 _Will later be past_

 _The order is_

 _Rapidly fadin'_

 _And the first one now_

 _Will later be last_

 _For the times they are a-changin'._

This slide was the one I was waiting for, as ancient paintings arise, starting with a simple abacus, two different cultures looking at the stars to paintings of Archimedes giving lectures and of ancient computing devices and navigation tools. Moving onto the first vacuum tube computers, and from there to the first micro processors and silicon wafers to personal computers and laptops, and finally, the van sized super computers of today.

Slide show fades and the lights come up, I step forward bowing lightly at the light applause, taping my Bluetooth earpiece, I speak.

"Greetings. Most of you probably know me for my triumphs on wall street, but the side of me you do not know is the thinker, a visionary if you will. And I'm here today to show you just what my vision is." I say introducing myself.

"As the presentation highlighted, every so often there are technological breakthroughs, whether it be the invention of the internal combustion engine, powered flight, or the advent of the computer age. It is a constant, every so often there is a game changer, a ground breaker so to say. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you that the next breakthrough is here." I say with a smile, watching as everyone stares in anticipation as I step to the side.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the worlds first practical photonic processor." I say with a smile as a few people gasp as the curtain raises behind me revealing a server bank. That is in reality a TITAN super computer with a peak performance of 22 teraflops, it was the fastest computer currently available in the united states.

"Now, there's a saying I like out there, and that's putting your money where your mouth is. To that end you will see a TITAN super computer, operating at 22 teraflops in conjunction with 693 terabytes of memory." I say as I walk to the table set up in front of it, a large case with dozens of heavy cables connecting to the Titan is on it. Turning it to the side I present the interior, no bigger then a standard personal desktop tower.

"On this table is a basic large desktop tower, available at any electronic retailer, with a custom connection to the titan." I say as I motion to the open case.

"And this..." I say fishing in my pocket and pulling out a one and a half inch square cube made out of a pink colored crystal, "... is the processor I mentioned operating in tandem with a memory crystal, it peaks at 104.9 teraflops, alongside 1.2 peta-bytes of memory." I say before connecting it, watching as the crowd freaks out many of them standing on their feet and shouting, many shouting impossible.

"Now, to back up my claim I have procured the services of one Tim Berners Lee, you probaly know him as the inventor of the internet. Prior to today we have had no contact with each other. He will be conducting my product demonstration." I say with a smile as I step back and Tim walks out dressed in a business suit.

"Believe me people, I don't believe it either, but Alex here personally bet me one billion it works, I'm starting to wonder if that was a good investment." he says as he walks over to the monitor and keyboard setup beside the tower.

"What I'm going to do is a test of raw processing power, each system will take turns attempting a brute force attack on the other, or as the geek inside me likens it to, Zerg-rushing each other." he says with a smile drawing a few laughs and lighting the atmosphere somewhat.

"Now to ease any worries I've examined the software before hand, and beside being an incredibly efficient operating system there is no evidence of tampering on either side." he says as he starts typing, and as he does the large plasma screen above the stage activates, mirroring his monitor.

"To start out, we will have the Titan attack the photonic processor." he says as he starts a program.

Zerg rush program activating...

.

.

.

.sending zerglings. 3.2.1.

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I watch in glee as about every five seconds another dot appears, by the one minute mark there are murmurs of disbelief, at the two minute mark Tim speaks, sweating slightly.

"Alright, was not expecting that. I think I'm out a billion people." he says with an awkward smile as he ends the program.

"Now it's time to reverse roles." he says as he restarts the program from the crystal side.

Zerg rush program activating.

Sending zerglings.

.

.

Access granted.

"..." the silence is deafening as I step forward again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the logic crystal." I say with a smile before bowing, less the a second later the crowd erupts into applause.

UoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUo

AN

and thats a wrap! I hope you can start seeing the direction i plan on taking this, or at least be getting a vauge outline of it.

that being said, critique is as always welcome.

before you say it, yes i understand it is quite similar to SG:GI as of yet, but remember the name of the fic, the butterfly effect. its going to start out small people, a single pebble thrown in the water so to say, its what the ripples do later on that will be the heart of this story.


	5. Chapter 5

After an hour of questioning I go on to introduce my next product, what I fondly call tri-tainum, an alloy lighter and stronger then steel. After that the heat converter, both of which get standing ovations. As do the Bio-Fuel and the nitrous oxide converter. By the time I'm finished its been six hours since I started.

Taking my leave I head back to my hotel were a well earned bottle of champagne is waiting for me.

Over the course of the next week stock in The Union increases over three hundred times, jumping from Fifty dollars a share to well over Fifteen thousand, making me the richest man in the world overnight.

With the massive influx of investments and orders I found new subsidiaries of my company, starting with Union Electronics, building a sprawling complex of over fifty factory's and warehouses to produce the new logic crystal processors.

Next is Union Foundry's, spawning just as many factory's that utilize a new blast furnace design I had christened the plasma blast furnace, using it to mass produce immense quantity's of tri-tainium and the heat converter coils.

Finally, Union Refinery's form to produce the new bio-fuel. They are by far the biggest complex at over ten square miles of algae production tanks, refinery's and storage areas.

Over the next three years these facility's come online the spawn the formation of a city, which to my amusement was named Union city, containing over a hundred thousand workers and there family's its population was over five hundred thousand, it also served as a prototype for a future project, as the roads were constructed out of a modular highly durable solar cell with wireless transmitters integrated ever five feet on either side and in the dividers, which would later link to the smart cars that came as a company gift to all workers, and thanks to the solar cell design the roads themselves provided a significant percentage of the total electricity consumption of the city. By the time it was finished and all my new technology was fully integrated it was being heralded as the city of the future, cars going bumper to bumper at speeds in excess of ninety miles an hour, incredibly efficient mag-lev trains for public transit. All of it centered around what was to be called "Union Tower" a prototype "sky city" tower that was capable of housing fifty thousand individuals alone, along with acting as the primary corporate headquarters for the Union itself.

As production came online and the contracts started coming in profits skyrocketed, selling my product at inflated prices I make a quarter trillion in the first quarter alone, much of which I funneled into new projects, such as car and airplane production, bringing online union motors and union aerospace in the first half a year since the inception of my revolution, within a year I had IBM, Dell, Apple and Microsoft on the brink of collapse. Six months later I absorbed their remains, taking in thousands of brilliant computer engineers, and two years to the day, I released the Duo-crystal core, once again shocking the world.

By this time I had also near monopoly on transportation, over land and sea Union hauling service was the de-facto shipping service across the world, with hubs in use, japan, china, great Britain, Africa and Russia. Bringing my profits to over two trillion a year.

The next and quite possibly most important subsidiary I start is union genetics, which after a small but fierce battle for permits, pours resources into stem cell research, fifty percent of which Is ordered to research how to change the human genome, and specificly, the sex chromosomes. Funneling over a nearly a trillion a year into this endeavor I wait.

And for the next four years I wait, never making a public appearance, it takes only six months for rumors and hype to start of the next big thing, but it never comes and eventually the hype dies down and life goes back to normal.

During this time period, Edward keeps up his end of the bargain and I keep him supplied with our miracle drug, and over time the states becomes more and more hostile towards the middle and lower class, and while there are great steps like legalizing marijuana in many states, there are more steps backwards, its painful to watch but I know its necessary, as they say. If your gonna make an omelet...

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At the start of Edwards reelection, things take a planned turn for the worse, between a would be assassin who managed to hit him at his reelection ceremony, to a new set of terrorist attacks on the united states, hitting new york, la and D.C. simultaneously.

These two events are the fuel needed for the sweeping reforms he makes to the patriot act, putting the metaphorical noose around the country without them even knowing it, it makes it much easier for the major intelligence agencys to monitor the internet, emails, phone lines, any aspect of someones personal life, bringing the country that much closer to the novel nineteen eighty four.

Not only this but border crossing is made even harder, cutting down tourist activity by seventy five percent, driving the country into a sense of isolationism. Yet despite massive protests there's more then enough votes to pass this new legislation thanks to Edwards incredible Charismatic attributes, and a health does of government controlled media.

And its only the beginning.

Over the course of his next term more and more extremist congressman and senators are let into the system, leading to a more and more hostile environment towards the middle and lower class, and due to the renewed patriot act mass protests were no longer possible forcing them to sit back and take it.

This of-course leads to a number of riots, which as controversial as they were are put down swiftly and violently, and the media which was in the governments pocket, barley covered the story's.

Near the end of his second term comes the breaking point, when the vote comes into congress to ban gay marriage nationally, and though its by a slim margin, it passes, thus leading to many more riots which were far to massive to sweep under the rug, and its at this point when the metal is hottest that I strike.

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"There ready for you sir." a secretary says and I nod walking up to the podium.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Ceo of The Union." a booming voice speaks out and I smile. Waving at the cameras as the room goes silent.

"Greetings and salutations. This anouncment, while containing the next set of technological marvels my company offers, also contains a message, to the people of the United States of America, and to the president, Mr. Morra, I plead you listen to what I am about to say, and think of the founding of this country before you react." I say calmly, my words carrying a strong sense of foreboding to anyone with half a braincell dedicated to history.

"Lets get on with it then shale we? Product number one has been a fantasy for many decades, ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to tell you, holograms are no longer science fiction, but science fact." I say as I put my hand out and allow the projection to pass through the podium, waving it around slightly before raising it up again, prompting much applause.

"I'm afraid that's all for purely technological marvels, but what I present next will no less wow you. For the past four and a half years union genetics has been hard at work researching new and and innovative methods of crop production, and recently have managed to pinpoint and target the gene group dictating speed of growth in several crops. Ladies and gentlemen, the future of food production is here. May I present the smart crop, capable of reaching full maturity within a week of being planted, given the soil is proper." I say with a smile as I let a slide play depicting the growth cycle of these new crops.

"I am proud to say, it is now possible to end world hunger." I finish to which I get a standing ovation.

"Lastly and the most important break through to me personally, and several million thousand people around the world, and considering the current state of America, the most controversial, is union genetics stem cell research." I say pausing for effect.

"Lets start with the small things first shale we?" I say with a smile.

"Regeneration therapy. Something once thought impossible will now soon be common practice, the ability to regenerate dead tissue, severed spinal cords, entire organs. Even lost limbs is now a reality ladies and gentlemen." I say with a flourish, playing another slide, this one of several people, all of whom were crippled or maimed in one way or another, glossing over the procedures and subsequent re-growth of limbs and nervous tissue. By the end of it the crowd is at a standing ovation.

"Now. Onto the meat of the matter. Genetic manipulation of living beings. It was a tough nut to crack, but crack it we did. Split it wide open would be a more accurate statement. May I present, the worlds first practical gene therapy. Through the precise manipulation of human DNA anything is possible, from denser bones and muscles to cosmetic changes like having violet eyes or natural pink hair, to quickened reflexes and faster nerve synapses. All of this is now possible thanks to the use of DNA manipulation. And most importantly, complete genetic overhaul, with the use of stem cells that have your base DNA, albeit modified. When implanted into key areas of the body will spread, and overtake your original DNA transforming you into what you see fit." I say with a smile, shocking everyone into silence, for genetic manipulation has long been the realm of not only the impossible but the taboo.

"Or, in my case a complete overhaul of two specific chromosomes, those related to gender. It was possible to remove that pesky little Y and replace it with a second X like it was meant to be." I say with a smile as I reach up to the necklace I was wearing and slide my hand under it, pulling it over my head and holding it off to the side, the moment its off of my head the hologram shimers, lowering the false projection and revealing my true self.

Stunning pink hair down just past my neck is displayed in a braid, violet eyes a plump set of lips, higher cheekbones and a general more angular facial structure, the AC-DC tee I was wearing bulging were my breasts are protruding, raising it up just a bit to expose a bit of my toned midriff, a black skirt covering my legs up to my mid thigh, a pair of black stockings over my thin toned legs coming down to a pair of high heels.

For nearly a minute I wait smiling simply at the stunned reaction before the flashbulbs start going nonstop.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen if you haven't already guessed i was, before my company gave me the tools I needed, a transgender women. from the start of this entire endeavor, this was my end goal, all those years ago winning my money at Vegas just gave me the tools I needed, the driving purpose behind my union has been to this end result. Make no mistake people I am a women in every sense of the word, I may even bare children. It is all now possible thanks to the marvels of technology." I say with a stunning smile, displaying my perfect teeth.

"Now that the formality have been cleared. I wish to address the nation as a whole." I say lowering my smile and setting my face into a deadly serious frown.

"Recently, there have been a string of atrocity's and crimes. Violating basic human rights. Every fiber of my being is disgusted by these heinous acts. Some of it can even be compared to slave labor, as the vast majority of this country is no longer allowed to pursue there dreams, and instead must work forty hours a week or more just to feed themselves." I trail off for a moment.

"And now America. Now Mr. Morra I'm ashamed to call this my country home. I'm ashamed I allowed you to be called a friend at one point in time Edward, for you and your regime have mutilated this country beyond recognition." this draws several gasps from the crowd.

"The basic right of free will have been violated. According to you, we may no longer choose who we love. Who we marry, WHAT. WE. ARE." I practically shout out the last three words.

"According to you there is a fine set of rules on WHAT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE. Well, I have a message for you buster, we don't give a damn what you say or think! We are who we are, and as far as I'm concerned anyone who says otherwise can go fuck themselves!" I shout out enraged drawing several gasps from the crowd and another wave of flashbulbs.

"Yet, as disgusting as this is, at this moment in time in this position there is nothing I can do about it is there? And you know that dont you?" I say with a frown before smiling.

"That America, is were your dead wrong. Do you really think I and my company have been doing nothing these past years, that I've just been twiddling my thumbs waiting for the tools to come to pass to be the women I am today? Well that's were your dead wrong. If you will turn your attention to the rear of the room, you will see a live stream video. This video taken from orbit is of the pacific ocean, in international waters right smack dab on the equator. You will no doubt notice the distortion in the water." I say with a smile referring to the ten mile wide circle that is entirely calm compared to the waves around it. once more reporters start taking pictures. And I look to the side, to the control technician only I can see.

"Drop the optical camouflage." I say simply and a moment later with a shimmering wave of pixel like distortion a massive structure comes into view, along with a massive fleet around it, and the angle changes to that of a camera on-board one of the ships, showing the city, for it was a city in its entirety with towering spires connected by sky bridges.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the capitol city of the Union of Freedom." I say with a smile and to this the crowd of reporters goes wild.

"As we speak, the Unions first fleet is sitting just outside of the states territorial waters outside of Union city California. In moments they will cross that line and make harbor, anyone who wishes to accompany them will be allowed to do so, so long as they swear an oath of loyalty to the Union." I say with a smile as the picture changes to the fore-mentioned fleet of over a hundred passenger ships and just as many warships.

"With that, I give my final announcement. From this moment forward, the Union is seceding from the United states of America, and so long as it remains in the condition it is hence forth, all trade from the union is embargoed, all electronic, material and fuel assets in the country controlled by the Union are being destroyed as we speak. The factory's outside this city are being decommissioned and demolished. Any attempt to stop said actions will be met with military force. Any attempt to stop immigration will be met with military force. And make no mistake, the technology we've demonstrated are paltry compared to the military technology developed since the inception of the union. Our forces may be inferior in numbers but they are superior in every possible way." I say with a grim smile.

"It pains me to inform those wishing to join us that the current population capacity of the Union is currently twenty five million. Make no mistake, construction efforts of gargantuan proportions are currently underway, and without the need for secrecy, the next two city's should come online within the year, after that one every six months as needed. To that end I am announcing the annexation of the previous Union city as a holding zone for any who wish to join us. This is not an invasion. But make no mistake, any use of military force used in attempt to keep those who want to from moving will be met in kind."

"Lastly. As an incentive, any and all waiting in the holdover zone will be given a basic living stipend, nothing extravagant but enough to feed and cloth your family's while construction of the next lily-pad city's are undertaken." I trail off.

"Make no mistake Mr. Morra, it is you and your regime that has driven me to this extreme, forcing me to re-purpose the lily-pad project, and until you are either removed from office or your polices change, all contact with your country except what is necessary for immigration is hereby halted. I will warn you one last time. Do. Not. Fuck. With. me." I grind out the last four words before looking back at the reporters.

"This is Lilian Roze Cross, leader of the Union of Freedom. Signing off. Have a good day." I say as the hologram fades.

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	6. Chapter 6

Wooooo! here we are! FINALLY! i apologize that it took so long to get here, but i hope i make up for it by this being the longest chapter to date! the reason it took so long is because i ended up re-writing 90% of the chapter after i read your guy's input! that being said, i honestly think this is some of my best writing to date, and will more then likely end up writing several of the major battle scenes in future chapters.

also, a far portion of this chapter i only had the change to give a once over, but there is a section containing most of the ground combat that my buddy Golum936 beta'd for me

anyway without further wait, here it is!

As the interface fades I look around the command deck of the Enterprise class super-carrier, the flagship of its class. At nearly a kilometer long she was a true super capitol of her era, whilst using an incredibly amount of automation, on par with this worlds artificially advanced technology she was only crewed by twenty-five hundred sailors and over a thousand pilots and flight crews.

"At your leave William." I say as I turn to my primary naval admiral, William Alexander, getting a nod of acknowledgment out of him.

"Helm! all ahead, flank. Bring the Citadel system online, Prepare for landing operations!" he calls out, referring to the Unions ship based missile defense system, and evolutionary off-shoot of the states "Aegis" system. Incorporating a "Layered Defense" consisting of long, intermediate and short range zones.

The outer zone was dedicated to the "Scatterbird" Cruise missile, which in reality was the worlds first true cluster missile, each one was simply a housing a delivery vehicle for twelve "buckshot" interceptor missiles, incorporating an incredibly compact guidance system and fire-control link, there warheads were deceptively simple, each containing a sizable number of three inch steel ball's and a small explosive charge designed to eject them at terminal velocity in a conical pattern, this combined with a highly accurate proximity fuse eliminated the need for a direct hit to kill an incoming missile, thus drasticly increasing there effectiveness.

If any incoming missile or aircraft managed to make it past the outer zone it was up the fleet's "Archangel" CWIS systems to finish the job. Each unit was self contained and able to operate either fully or semi autonomously, containing its own Threat detection suite, yet capable of linking with the fleet's entire network. It was the ultimate endgame in mid to close range missile defense, taking an approach of "The kitchen sink and then some" it consisted of a central detection and tracking system, using the latest in radar and optical tracking, the weapons themselves consisted of two eight shot rapid launch missile systems, firing a variant of the buckshot counter-missile modified for slightly greater range, both of which were modular and could be swapped with fully loaded "mags" on the go.

Also within this system was the final countermeasure, consisting of two 30mm "Zeus" autocannons. Using the "avenger" model of the same caliber as a base it was capable of firing eight thousand rounds a minute, and thanks to a liquid cooling system it was capable of sustained fire of up to twenty five seconds. To allow this rate of ammunition consumption it is fed directly from the ships store's via its mount, though in the case of the feed being damaged it is capable utilizing 2000 round drums stored directly beneath the system.

There were currently sixteen mounted on various points around the Enterprise, and all ships, even the transports carried at Minimum four of the systems. It was my humble opinion that if any missile managed to sink one of our ships, they damn well deserved to.

"Scramble squadrons one through five." William orders, prompting flight crews race to there aircraft which are then launched into the sky's by one the three magnetic catapults across the flight deck, these planes while vaguely similar to an F-22 were a different beast entirely, with a primary fuel source of liquid nitrous oxide they were capable of super sonic flight in excess of mach 5, faster then most air to air missiles of the previous era, incredibly fuel efficient and with there onboard atmosphere converters could refuel themselves mid-flight, which depending on the altitude and speed could either maintain the fuel consumption of the engines, or top off the tanks. The lower they were the thicker the atmosphere therefore the more efficient the converters were, though they could only be operated below mach 1.5 there on-board tanks were more then sufficient for between thirty minutes to an hour of maneuvering above those speeds. Armed with three rotary missile launches concealed in internal weapons bays the Ares mark one interceptors as they were called could carry an astounding number of missiles, with ten per launcher an unheard of thirty missiles could be carried by each plane, and with there onboard photonic processors they could launch and control up to six at a time in a slightly staggered launch. These missiles were an incredible masterpiece of destruction, propelled by a bio-rocket fuel that was used by the Asgard for there last series of escape pods before there mind transfer technology became practical, they could in theory achieve mach ten, though at such speeds they would destroy themselves, instead they had an incredible flight time at mach 6. a full minute, able to come full circle if they somehow missed a target they could take up to three passes at said target. There warhead was modular, capable of carrying either buckshot for anti-fighter and anti-missile duty's, or conventional explosives for ground attacks, add in the fact that the fuel itself added to the detonation on impact, which depending on levels could be as devastating as a standard five hundred pound bomb it gave them an incredible amount versatility, giving the ares the title of a total superiority fighter.

And twenty five were currently headed to patrol the sky's around the previous union city.

As the fighters took to the air, the communications officer spoke up.

"Incoming transmission. Its coming from San Francisco harbor ma'am" he says looking at me and I nod.

"Put it on screen." I order and a paper thin plasma screen rolls down from the ceiling in front of the main viewing window. Coming to life it displays the face of an older gentlemen with graying hair, with a major scowl on his face.

"This is Admiral Terrance Shane commander of the U.S. pacific fleet, you are hereby order to cease and desist all landing activity's and prepare to be boarded. You are currently engaging in act of treason against the United States of America." he orders and I snort.

"Please. If you honestly believe that the abomination you are serving can still be called the united states you are incredibly naive. As I said before the union of freedom is hereby annexing the air, ground and waters around Union city California until all who wish to leave the country have been given the chance to do so. Any military force taken against us will be replied to in kind by a factor of ten. Now unless you want to start a war, I suggest you keep your ships in harbor and your aircraft grounded. If you do not, you are leading your men to slaughter." I reply simply and wait for his reply, watching as his expression gets darker and darker.

"You've no idea what you have just done. There is no chance in hell the force you have with you can withstand the army and air force of this superpower. I will repeat. Heave to and prepare to be boarded." he spits out and I roll my eyes.

"Yea buddy, here's my official reply." I say as I raise my hand and curl my fingers in flipping him the bird.

"Go fuck yourself." I say cutting the channel. Before turning to my admiral.

"You know what to do." I say simply and he nods.

"Set condition red, launch all remaining squadrons." he orders as the bridge becomes a flurry of activity, below the flight deck crews start running in overdrive, the ships elevators ferrying planes to takeoff postions as fast as they can, within twenty five minutes four hundred and seventy five more aircraft are airborne. At the same time the carrier reduces speed and rejoins the center of the formation.

By the time the planes are in the air the com officer speaks again.

"Incoming transmission, originating from a com-sat in orbit." He announces and I nod motioning for him to put it on screen which once again rolls down. This time displaying the enraged face of Edward Morra, the president of the united states.

"Alex what the hell are you doing!?" he shouts out with no preamble and I roll my eyes at him.

"I'll not answer to that name anymore eddy, its rose now, And exactly what I said, me and my people are seceding." I say simply with a shrug of my shoulder.

"That is an act of treason!" he roars.

"If you do not stop this nonsense I will give Terrance the go ahead to engage! As your commander in chief I am ordering you to stop!" he shouts and again I roll my eyes.

"I no longer answer to you. I am the leader of the sovereign nation of the Union of Freedom. I will repeat one last time. Any military action taken against us will be replied to in kind." I reply curtly.

"You've no idea what you've just done _**woman**_ " he says spitting out the last word with barley contained hatred.

"The military might of this superpower will crush your insignificant Union in less then a day." he shouts and I burst out laughing at him.

"Please. Ninety percent of your military technology is from Union armaments! Do you really think I would give you the means to destroy me!? Go ahead and try dickhead." I say cutting the channel, Before turning to the admiral and nodding.

"Open a fleet wide channel." he says simply and a moment later the screen displays a dozens of different faces of the commanders of the fleet.

"This is admiral William Alexander of the Enterprise. Now here this, all ships prepare for emanate ship to air and ship to ship combat, landing ships prepare for landing operations, we have thirty minutes until we hit shore. Give them hell people." he says cutting the com, moments later the sensor operator speaks up.

"Multiple aircraft detected! Launching from San Francisco harbor and air force base sir, there count is two hundred and rising rapidly, there coming this way." he shouts and I nod.

"Do not engage unless fired upon I repeat do not engage unless fired upon. You know the drill people. From this point forward operation Overlord is a go. I repeat, Overlord is a go." he says as the count of enemy aircraft rises endlessly, before stopping at just over a thousand.

"Ma'am aircraft count has leveled off at just over one thousand, our fly boys are outnumbered two to one." The sensor operator reports and I smile at that chance to quote one of my favorite lines.

"Then it will be a fair fight." I say with a smile.

"Orbital imagining showing the pacific fleet leaving harbor at San Francisco and Pearl sir, course indicates the first fleet and the capitol respectively." he says and I nod.

"Let Axton know, send him out to meet them." I say simply referring to admiral bill Axton of the Union's second fleet.

"Ma'am that will only leave the home fleet protecting the capitol." William says and I nod.

"The city if a fortress unto itself, you know that Will, they will be fine." I say simply as the sensor office speaks again.

"Ma'am! Enemy aircraft are crossing into Union airspace, they will be in firing range momentary." he shouts and I nod.

"Orders remain the same, do not fire unless fired upo-" I say as the officer cuts me off.

"Missile launch! Fighters are targeting our fly boys ma'am, there moving to engage." he shouts and I nod.

"New missile track! Its coming from the pacific fleet, looks like a flight of tomahawk mark twos." I nod sighing.

"Open up with a flight of scatter birds! Once their missiles are down have the fleet prepare for a full broadside!" I shout out, watching is the fourteen "Draco" class missile defense cruisers spring into action, each one of them launching two scatterbirds a piece out of their forward launch cells.

"missiles are coming up on release range..." the ops officer narrates as the track of salvo rockets closer and closer to the two mile boundary of the optimal deployment line.

"Counter missile release in five, ma'am" and I watch as the tracks on the screen turn from Twenty-eight to Three hundred and Thirty-six, increasing speed dramaticly, within moments the flight of two hundred ship killers is reduced to a pile of scrap on a ballistic trajectory. Moments later the sensor operator speaks up.

"Sir, all air squadrons have evaded the first flight of missiles, they are now launching a counter strike." At this I give a feral grin and nod watching as the main screen displays the sensory images showing a three dimensional layout of the airspace around the fighters, each one represented by blue diamond, moments later a spattering of small orange diamonds split off from them and race towards the formation of angry red icons.

"Missile launch" ops narrates and I nod, watching as the red formation scatters every which way, to which the missiles keep tracking, as they get closer and closer the enemy jets start launching chaff and flares making there signals fuzz out a bit, but out of the five hundred birds launch only thirty six miss, showing a previously unimaiginable level of accuracy, and crippling one of the largest formations of combat aircraft in American history.

"Fighters engaging in close air combat." ops reports as the dots mesh together in what can only be described as an aerial fur-ball, dozens glittering dots streak back and forth between the fighters indicating missile launches, at this range each union missile fired another American fighter disappears, whilst the American missiles are highly ineffective, and the few that do find there mark don't instantly down the plane as has been the norm for decades. The reason being the reactive armor on each ares interceptor, consisting of hundreds of single square inch plates, each designed to explosively eject moments before a missile impact, negating the effect. Thanks to this its takes two to three missiles to down each bird.

That was not to say there were now losses however, as even the most aircraft, armour and countermeasures in the world didn't change the fact that Union pilots were green, and had not flown in real combat outside of simulations. Therefore when it came down to the aerial clusterfuck that any battle of this size was destine to become, the American pilots had the edge, having more experience and knowledge of their crafts capability's. It was this fact that lead to the downing of thirty four Union fighter-craft, a fair trade by any standard.

"I want Choppers in the air now. Get those pilots back." I order as the last American fighter disappears.

"Guns. Give the order full fleet broadside directed towards the fleet leaving San-Fran, full power. Overlapping fields of fire, leave the admirals carrier alone." I bark out, watching as across the carriers flight deck patches of the tri-tanium surface fold up to reveal a large bore railgun, a total of twenty five unveil themselves across the deck.

The worlds first Battle Carrier was about to make its ship to ship combat debut.

"Targets locked in ma'am." The weapons officer reports and I nod.

"Engage volley mode and open fire, don't stop until everything but the carrier is gone." I order coldly and I watch as the guns power up, cobalt blue arcs of electricity crossing between the rails before the discharge, resulting in ear splitting booms and fifty foot long plums of plasma ejecting from the end of them, following in the wake of the fifty pound tungsten shells that were just accelerated to ten times the speed of sound.

They rocket towards the American fleet in a parabolic ark, decelerating sharply they slope back towards the earth racing towards there target at over mach 5. Impacting with the force of half a kiloton each, the destroyers and cruisers don't even have time to realize they've been hit before every man and woman on-board are dead. They simply disintegrate, leaving five hundred foot plums of water in there wake and pieces of debris no bigger then a softball.

"Cooling cycle activated, ejecting spent rails." guns calls out as the deck is covered with a white mist as the guns cycle tanks of liquid nitrogen through there systems before spiting out the two half melted rails onto the deck and replacing them with new ones.

"Impressive." William says calmly beside me and I stare at the image, my emotions reeling as it hits me just how many people I have ordered killed.

"And now I have become death. Destroyer of worlds..." I mutter quietly to myself before shaking my head slightly.

"Commence landing operations, get our marines into the city, I want a perimeter set up within an hour!" I call out, watching as the transport vessels raise their rear launch gates, allowing a measure of water to flow into them and float the "Hermes" catamaran style landing ships, each capable of carrying a hundred and fifty tons of man and machine, they were a supremely capable amphibious landing craft, each of the 10 Troop transports were capable of fielding five at a time with a full load.

As it was there was only a need for thirty six or so of the vessels, as despite being having a large technological advantage, the one major disadvantage of the Union was its numbers, in its current state we are only capable of fielding thirty thousand troops.

Compared to the million plus men and women in the states' armed forces, one would think it would be a no brain-er on who wins the fight, a true David vs Goliath battle.

I would be the first to point out who actually won that battle, and how. The how in question is something known as a force multiplier, in Davids case it was his ability to attack from range with great precision. In the unions case it is the technological edge we have to call upon.

There were many, many factors to this edge, which were the reason this rebellion was practical. The first being the worlds first Combat Exo-skeleton. Powered by extremely compact fuel cell, each of which had the capacity to power the suit for either three to seven days depending on the variant.

Coming primarily in two variants, this technology allowed a vast increase in soldier capability, starting simply with survivability, the load baring aspects of the suit allowed for much heavier armor and equipment to be used. The second variation allowed the creation of the first Heavy Infantry division in over a hundred years. Consisting of a fully sealed suit it could well be referred to as power armor, powered by two separate fuel cells and armored with over an inch of tri-tainium battle plating it was immune to anything short of anti-tank weaponry. Its weapons load-out was variable, from tri-barrled .50 caliber machine guns loaded with high explosive incendiary ammo for heavy gunner support, to shoulder mounted rail-guns for anti-armor duty's, it was an incredible masterpiece of destruction, and five thousand of them were currently headed for old Union City.

As far as force multipliers go the exo-suit's were only the tip of the iceberg, tanks armed with large bore rail-guns, anti-armor missile launchers with smart warheads capable of finding their own target out of a set of pre-programed signatures, self propelled artillery cannons capable of rapid repositioning and an unheard of rate of fire, one 155 millimeter shell every second and a half.

As the transports reach shore they slow down considerably given they weren't under fire, allowing them to beach themselves and lower their forward ramps, allowing men and machine to disembark en-mass. I watch with a smile over the course of the next fifteen minutes as they disgorge there cargo in an ordered chaos. As they start heading back out to sea towards their motherships the remaining sixteen transports launch, carrying the first load of supply's for the operation.

"First supply wave is away ma'am." ops narrates getting a simple nod from me as I take a breath to calm myself.

"I wont micro-manage, you all know the plan of operations here. Set up the supply dumps and start with the fortifications." I say calmly nodding to William.

"There is one thing I feel is fitting though." I say as I walk over to the communications center and hand the lead officer a USB drive.

"Its a playlist, loop the first song and start a saturation broadcast on the civilian bands, bounce it off our orbital birds to, I want national coverage" I say with a smile getting a nod out of him as he plugs the drive into his terminal and brings up the list before breaking into a smile.

"If I may ma'am?"

"Yes?"

"Brilliant selection." he says simply prompting me to smile wildly as he starts entering keystrokes rapid fire, to my delight he piped it through the inter and external P.A. systems of the fleet.

UoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoF

Head high, protest line

"Freedom" scribbled on your sign

Headline, New York Times

Standing on the edge of a revolution

Hey, hey, just obey

Your secret's safe with the NSA

In God we trust or the CIA?

Standing on the edge of a revolution

Yeah, we're standing on the edge of a revolution

Revolution, revolution, revolution

No, we won't give up, we won't go away

'Cause we're not about to live in this mass delusion

No, we don't wanna hear another word you say

'Cause we know they're all depending on mass confusion

No, we can't turn back, we can't turn away

'Cause it's time we all relied on the last solution

No, we won't lay down and accept this fate

'Cause we're standing on the edge of a revolution

Wall Street, common thief

When they get caught they all go free

A brand new yacht and a finders fee

Standing on the edge of a revolution

Same shit, different day

Can't keep fed if I can't get paid

We'll all be dead if the shit don't change

Standing on the edge of a revolution

Yeah, we're standing on the edge of a revolution

Revolution, revolution, revolution

No, we won't give up, we won't go away

'Cause we're not about to live in this mass delusion

No, we don't wanna hear another word you say

'Cause we know they're all depending on mass confusion

No, we can't turn back, we can't turn away

'Cause it's time we all relied on the last solution

No, we won't lay down and accept this fate

'Cause we're standing on the edge of a revolution

We'll all be dead if this shit don't change

Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey...

"As we all know doubt know by this point, this has been the call to arms of the newly formed "Union of Freedom." Which announced its deceleration of independence two days ago, unveiling the existence of a massive floating city in the pacific. Along with this declaration the Union also announced its annexation of what is now known as "old" Union city to house the overflow of immigrants as the current population capacity of New Union city is twenty-five million, which while an astounding achievement on par with Union standards, will not be capable of housing all who wish to join if the reports we are receiving are accurate." a CNN news anchor speaks as the camera cuts back to the studio, having previously been playing clips taken from civilian videos of the unions landing operation.

"The Reports in question are simply astounding. From coast to coast people are packing their belongings and taking to the roads, within hours of the unions declaration outbound lanes in several major citys were gridlocked, we are witnessing the largest mass migration in the history of the country." she goes on.

"What remains to be seen is the outcome of these events, as earlier today President Morra declared the Union and all affiliated with them traitors against the United states, and his intention for military action." she says pausing.

"The only thing we now know for certain is that we are in the midst's of a revolutionary war, and one must ask themselves, as a nation founded in revolution, should we be stopping this from happening?"

"Lets now go to Andrew Colt, one of our reporters currently in "Old" Union city, and in the center of this extraordinary event." she says as the image once against changes this time showing a very average man in semi-casual wear, with what can only be described as controlled chaos behind him as hundreds of people flood the streets, heading in the same general direction, soldiers in fantastic armor can be seen direction the herd.

"Thank you Jill. As you can see behind me it is a controlled chaos down here at the eastern side of the city as Union troops have ordered the evacuation of the outer edge of the city in order to keep civilians out of the line of fire should this turn into a ground war with the 'States, as you can see from earlier footage we've managed to record the city is undergoing major overhaul as combat engineers work on fortifying it against attack." he says as the picture switches for a few moments to that of the outskirts of the city were man and machine can be seen rapidly digging trenches and placing tank-traps and barbed wire.

"Its clear from our perspective that the Union is expecting to fight for their cause Andrew, our question is how can a force as small as theirs, relatively speaking. Expect to stand up to a nation like America? Whose active service members number over a million?" Jill asks.

"That Jill, is the question on everyone's mind, and I believe we may be able to shed some light on the matter, as the troops we've seen deployed have been anything but regular, they appear to be armed with some sort of combat exo-skeleton suits, as you can see here on the troops directing the flow of evacuee's. The suit is clearly visible at the back of the knees and elbows." Colt speaks as the camera angel zooms in on one of the soldiers on the street, specifiably were parts of the exo-frame were visible.

"What we are seeing is only a variant of whatever technology the Union is utilizing here, for as seen in footage recorded earlier, there is at least one more, this one so heavily armored its being referred to as power armor Jill. If its half as capable as it looks, I believe the united states military is in for one hell of a fight. Taking into account the armored vehicles and artillery pieces we've seen staged around the city, along with the constant presence of union aircraft, I honestly believe they have a chance at winning."

"A prediction that a large part of this country wishes to come true. If you could Andrew, we would very much appreciate an interview with someone at ground zero of this Rebellion."

What follows is a few attempts to get the attention of one of the many evacuees, after a few tries someone answers the call and breaks away from the crowd.

"Yes what is your name miss?"

"Lisa Washburn." she answers

"What do you think of the situation then Lisa? How do you feel about being part of a Revolution?" Colt asks.

"Its sad. But not in the way you'd think, I think its sad that it came this far, that this" she pauses and motions around them with her arms. "Is necessary. I whole heatedly believe the country I was born a part of is gone, and in its place is a dictatorship full of corruption and greed." she says getting a nod out of colt.

"I see, a sentiment many of us share. What do you think of the Union then, do you believe they have a chance at winning this war?"

"I'm no expert on military's, but I know this has to be a David versus Goliath kind of scenario, I would point out who actually won that fight however."

"As for what I think of the Union? They truly care, and believe what in what they are fighting for. Living here, in this city and working under them I was actually able to live comfortably, unlike many of my family who can barely feed themselves these days. That has to get you thinking of just how much the Union cares if they were willing to take that large a hit to their profits in order to give their employees a living wage. A model that I'm sure is to apply to the citizens now that they are a sovereign nation." she says nodding to the camera.

"Thank you very much miss Washburn, and thank you for your time." Colt says shaking her hand.

The cycle goes on for the next half hour as the reporter and studio crew go back and forth offering opinions and speculations. In the end it comes down to one conclusion, that in order for the union to succeed, the will to fight must be broken, as no matter how advanced their weapons war, the sheer weight of numbers that the united stats could throw at them would inevitably grind them down.

UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF

"Man this is some buuulllshit. I'm supposed to waist deep in Margarita's and women by now!" one Private Jim Anderson complains for the third time that hour.

"Anderson! I hear one more word outta you, and your on bitch duty the rest of the haul! Now get your kit and get moving goddammit!" A Sergeant Halsey shuts him down in an instant as they work and loading up their weapons and ammunition.

The scene around the was complete and utter chaos as man and machine scrambled to fulfill their new standing orders, putting down the rebellion of the so called "Union of Freedom"

The men in mention were a part of the Infamous First Marine Division, the patch on their shoulders distinguishing them, proudly displaying the "Big Red One"

They themselves were rather insignificant, just a small part of a much, much larger machine, the machine in question being the Marine base of operations known as Camp pendleton, and the First Division was only one of many that were in the process of mobilizing.

"I hate to say it, but he has a point sarge. This assignment is bullshit, were all supposed to be on leave now." says one private Barnes as he loads up on ammo for his Squad Automatic Weapon.

"Jesus Christ! You wanna bitch at someone then bitch at the assholes that started a goddamn WAR! How inconvenient of them huh? Couldn't they wait another week!? God motherfucking dammit marines! Suck it up. You think ANY of us wanna be here!?" Halsey breaks out, voicing most everyone's opinion of the situation.

"I hear you there 'Sarge but... well its not as if their not justified." Corporal Jenkins replies after a moment.

"You wanna run that by me again Corporal?" the sarge counters with a chill in his voice.

"Think about it sir. There fighting for what they believe is right and just, for their basic rights to be enforced, something our nation has been exceedingly poor at lately. Is it really all that different from how this country was founded? Think about it sarge."

There is no reply to that statement, from any of the marines gearing up.

UoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoF

"Whats the situation General?" I ask as I enter the conference room, one of the largest in Union Tower, now reconfigured to act as a war room, a holographic display table at the center of it. The Union's military command staff gathered around it.

"Its as we predicted ma'am, orbital imagery is showing major mobilizations from Camp Pendelton, as well as Hunter Ligget. There gearing up big ma'am." he says as pictures of the mobilizations are displayed, thousands of armored vehicles moving in massive columns were pouring out of said bases.

"The Air Force is doing much the same, just about every airfield in the state is gearing up, all plans appear to be on scramble readiness, and more are flooding in from all over the country ma'am, there building up for a knockout blow." he says the imagery shifts to the airfields, were thousands of planes could be seen lining the runways.

"There going to be the biggest threat, whats the status of our air defenses?" I ask, prompting the imagery to switch back to a diagram of the city.

"Scatterbird battery's have been set up along the perimeter, at current we have five hundred birds on launch standby, add in the fleets stockpile now that the second has rendezvoused with us and we are talking of a barrage of fifteen hundred missiles." he explains, highlighting the battery's at different points around the city, along with the fleet off shore.

"On the off chance they manage to make it past the initial salvos, we've installed several dozen Archangel systems around the city, these combined with the mobile platforms will be the last line of defense."

"Good good, I'm confidant in our ability's to hold their air forces at bay. But I doubt they will go all in on the first attack, once they figure out our air defenses are untouchable there going to commit to a ground attack to take them out, whats the situation of the ground fortifications?"

"Thanks to the exo-suits, and excavating technology the combat engineers may actually finish the entire network before the deadline is up. By the time they are done the only viable route into the city will be through the highway, which will be completely zeroed in with our new artillery pieces, and in order to prevent counter-fire they will reposition after every ten rounds in order to avoid counter-fire.

"Brilliant work people! This is unfolding just as the plan calls for!" I smile as I give them praise, genuinely happy with the situation, as this scenario was the one with the least amount of bloodshed.

I was still disgusted with the predicted casualty, the thought of killing someone was disturbing enough, the fact that my actions were about to cause the death of a hundred and ten thousand people? It was unsettling to say the least.

"Right then, how are the evacuations going?" I say referring to the rapid processing of people wishing to defect to the Union.

"We're proceeding at a pace slightly faster then what we predicted ma'am, at this rate we will have transports loaded within ten days."

"Right, thank you Andrew, I'm sure your involvement had something to do with that." I say with a slight smile and nod.

"So far everything is going to plan, now we just have to wait for the enemy to reach the city... something I'm not looking forward to, as they say. No plan survives contact with the enemy." I say solemnly as we start going over supply reports.

UoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoF

Wait we did, preparing ever more intricate defense's, from minefeilds to dialing in our artillery pieces impact zones. All the while we keep on loading the transports with refugees.

For six days we waited as the formation of American troops gathered their forces into a forward operating base thirty miles out, no bout assessing our defenses, which we had finished the same day they arrived at their current location.

Said defenses were all but impenetrable in today's battlefield, trenches large enough for tanks to move through, whilst only barely exposing there main gun turret, tunnels for troops to move undetected, machine gun and mortar emplacements, pillbox's and bunkers made of insta-crete reinforced with tri-tanium, making them near impervious to conventional weapons.

All of this in a semi-circle of concentric rings round the city, the only viable route into the city now was the main eight lane highway, which was guarded by every tank and artillery piece the union had in its possession, along with a third of our troops, half of which were equipped with the heavy version of the exo-suit, armed with anti-vehicle weaponry.

Thanks to this the first stage of the battle would no-doubt be aerial, as it was no secret that the Union's air presence was dominating. Hence the constant patrolling of at least five squadrons. It will more then likely be an All or Nothing battle for the Americans, as they know without complete control of the sky's around the city that there was no way in hell they would piece the defense's arrayed before them.

Thus, our best bet to hold them off was to delay them in the air as long as possible with the thousand fighter craft we had available, normally this would seem suicide, but with the power of the scatterbird missiles I was confidant we could thin what will no doubt be a variable swarm of hostile aircraft.

It was just before dawn the seventh morning when their air-power began mobilizing in a massive way, it was this scene I was woken to, having finally been convinced to sleep by my command staff, given the fact that I had been up since the day of the unions deceleration of independence, and in predictable fashion it was my luck that six hours later the air-raid sirens awoke me with a start.

Jumping out of bed I look out the window of my suite on union tower, from which I can see the city cutting off all but backup power, thus blacking out the city. From the fleet offshore I could see jets pouring into the air, prompting a huge spike of adrenalin and anxiety out of me. It was finally starting.

"What the hell is going on! Give me a sit rep now!" I call out as I start throw my uniform back on consisting of a blue button up top with a flared hem and a pair of white slacks.

"Their air forces are launching in mass ma'am, they are already passing two thousand craft, and the ground element is starting to spike on thermal imaging, they will be attacking soon, at dawn I'm guessing."

"How cliche. And why wasn't I informed of this the moment it was detected?" I ask calmly as I finish buttoning up my shirt and fix my black and golden cap, signifying my rank of commander in chief.

"That would be because I ordered it so ma'am, I apologize but we need you as rested as we can get you from this point on." he says making me sigh.

"I understand, and I appreciate it Jim." I say as I cut the com line and make a be-line for the door and dash into the hallway leading to the command center, I get there three minutes and thirty five seconds later, taking a moment to readjust my clothes and try and straighten out my hair slightly I enter it.

"Whats the situation." I call out, alerting the war room to my presence.

"Officer on deck!" One of the marines at the door shouts, prompting all who were standing to snap to a salute.

"At ease, just tell me what we got gentlemen." I say as walk up to the main holo-display at the center of tiered room.

"Were getting better imaging of their formation now ma'am, looks like there going to be hitting us hard, a quarter of their heavy Armour is at the front of the column." Jim calls out getting a nod from me.

"And their air power?" I ask as I take my spot across the table from him.

Forming up as of yet ma'am, their in a massive holding pattern sixty miles to the east. Were detecting the presences of dozens of refueling craft."

"Whats of our interceptors? Are they in the air yet?"

"Aye ma'am, all squadrons in the air and armed with buckshot warheads."

"Roger, as soon as they begin their approach, we will launch a volley of scatterbirds and sync the impact's to the interceptors missiles. "I order out before looking at the coms officer.

"Is that saturation broadcast still going out?" I ask getting a nod from him.

"cut it off and prepare for a live transmission, blanket their picture broadcasts as well"

"will do ma'am, give me three minutes." he says and I nod.

"Once its ready open coms to D.C. use the backdoor we have in their system."

"Make that four minutes ma'am." he corrects himself.

As we wait I go over my appearance one last time before nodding to myself in a bit of false serenity as I do my best to control my emotions.

"Ready ma'am, just say the word." com's says and I nod.

"Put us on."

"Edward, are you really going to send that many men and women to their deaths?" I call out the moment the screen comes up, making nearly everyone one around their control room jump.

"What!? How the hell is she doing this!?" he yells out at the technicians manning rows of computers.

"I feel I should inform you, were broadcasting this live to that nation, so everyone may witness your madness. I will ask you one last time, are you really going to send that many people to their deaths? By our count you have somewhere around a hundred thousand troops ready to assault us, even now that are mobilizing. My question is why? You must know by now our defenses are impenetrable, you are sending your men on a suicide mission."

"You lie! We both know that you cant keep this up forever! Nomatter what it takes you will still run out men and equipment far faster then we will. Your chances of survival are nill." he calls out, a confidant and arrogant smirk plastered on his face.

"WOW. I'm impressed, really. You actually announced to the whole damn nation that you intend to send its troops into the grinder, knowing full well what kind of losses you will take. Do you really think people will take the treatment of their friends and family laying down? I don't think so Edward. You see, that's what this comes down to." I say in a fairly sarcastic tone before calming myself once more and looking dead at the camera.

"That's were you come in. you siting on your couch at home, in your car on the road, on your computer in your room. You will decide the outcome of this war. Your actions are more deadly then any weapons system ever conceived, for your will is what runs this country, its the corrupt madmen and politician like Edward here that are twisting it to their own designs."

"So I ask you, I beg you. Rise up against those who would wrong you, fight back against the parasitic system that is your government. For you have the power to end this war, to keep this travesty from going on any further." I say before glancing at the screen, seeing Edwards scowl I sigh.

"Its in your hands now America. As long as someone believes, freedom will always find a way."

"This is Lillian Rose cross, leader of the Union of Freedom. Signing off." I say, motioning for coms to cut the broadcast.

"I want you to loop the next song of the playlist, and to pipe footage taken from our recon drones onto the picture broadcast, we will show this nation EXACTLY how much their leader cares about its service members." I say calmly as he does just that, once more routing it through the PA system for the first play.

Now the time has come when all is said and done

We're back together on the road it's time to fly

No more time to wait you know it feels so great

Wearin leather on a horse of steel I ride

I ain't waiting to get old I'm runnin hot I'm never cold

Kiss my ass if you don't like me I don't care

I got my wheels I got my friends we're on the road again

We're all crazy gonna ride until we die

Time to burn you losers better learn

No one controls our goddamn lifes

We'll do just what we feel riding horses made of steel

We're here to burn up the night

Losers try to put us down it's just another day

I got no money or big house just got life

I don't like to save it's more fun to spend

If you like metal you're my friend

And that bike out in the yard well that's my wife

Don't try to understand me my family never will

Had to punch my teacher out now he's chilled

I might stay in school or die in prison

Either way it's my decision one more beer and heavy metal

And I'm just fine

Time to burn you losers better learn

No one controls our goddamn lifes

We'll do just what we feel riding horses made of steel

We're here to burn up the night

We are the undefeated we're not living in the past

We're here tonight to kick some goddamn ass

Feel the power of the wheel lets drink to riding steel

Livin hard and riding fast!

Time to burn you losers better learn

No one controls our goddam lifes

We'll do just what we feel riding horses made of steel

We're here to burn up the night

As the song plays the glow from the sun over the horizon can be seen growing brighter slowly, as if an indicator of time until the fighting begins.

"Aircraft count has stopped increasing ma'am! Were looking at Ten thousand planes up there." the sensor operator calls out and I nod.

"Prepare a coordinated salvo, as soon as they cross the twenty five mile zone we will unleash hell upon them. Flush this city's magazines, the fleet will pick up the slack when needed." I say, watching as the orders go out and the room enters a state of controlled chaos as operators start talking into their headsets, coordinating with the different units stationed around the battlefield.

"There moving ma'am! There heading this way!" my tactical office calls out getting a nod from me.

"Ares formations moving to intercept ma'am! Targets are locked up and tagged."

"Your orders remain the same." I say simply as I watch the plot, a 25 mile transparent wall displayed were the boundary was.

"Preparing to fire scatterbirds..."

"Four... Three... Two... Launch." he orders, unleashing a storm of devastation in the form of clustermissles, my eyes change focus for a second as I watch the video display, which was currently focused on the multiple launch missile systems around the city, all twenty five of them have their own box on the screen, and the walls of fire coming from the rear of the "turrets" are immense as they belch two missiles a second.

In ten seconds five hundred cruise missiles are in the air.

Less then a minute later there followed up by a full launch from the unions fighter element, unleashing their own storm of missiles.

"Counter-missiles launching from the ground element ma'am." tactical calls out as dozens of missiles start lancing up from the ground, amazingly they managed to take down a significant portion of the launch, over one hundred and thirty missiles are blotted out of the sky in explosions of heat, pressure and shrapnel.

This leaves three hundred and fifty six intact however, which release their deadly payloads moments before the fighters wave of misses passes them, syncing their impact times to the same second.

Over six thousand missiles were posed to take out the massive formation of American aircraft.

"Formation launching countermeasures ma'am."

Under normal circumstances, the advanced seekers on the warheads insure a near ninety percent hit rate thanks to their photonic processors and their thermal and radar imaging systems. This was far form a normal situation however, as with so many craft launching flares at once, the thermal signature of the formation becomes so massive that its impossible to track, even to the powerful logic crystals.

The end result was over two thousand missiles loosing their lock and hitting either chaff or flares.

The rest however, exactly four thousand sixty four missiles found their targets, and turned heavens into a scene from hell. Burning wrecks plummeted from the heavens, in some cases impacting other craft, or worse parachutes.

"Enemy fighters are returning fire ma'am." tac says as the display lights up with hundreds of tracks from the American formation.

"Fighters launching a double salvo." he says as our pilots retaliate, one of the waves headed for the Americans incoming missiles, while the other heads for the remainder of the formation.

The counter missile attack is incredibly successful, with only five missing their mark, but out of the six thousand that were launched that still left five thousand. The reminder would have to be delt with by the superior maneuvering and countermeasures of the pilots and craft.

The attack wave was marginally deflected, with "only" another six hundred planes downed.

It was a slaughter, and our side was about to be bloodied as well, I watch as the wave of missiles come in, our own countermeasures foiling nearly three quarters of them, but that still left nearly thirteen hundred inbound.

As they come in I cant help but cringe every time a blue icon disappears from the screen. In total we loose two hundred and fifty planes, with another hundred and five with varying degrees of damage.

"seven hundred and forty five birds left in the fight ma'am." tactical says, snapping me out of my trance.

"Give them hell people, try to bait them closer enough to the city for the archangel systems to thin the heard." I call out as I watch the aerial furball unfold as they close to autocannon range, edging ever closer to the transparent sphere around the city on the display, indicating the max effective range of the Archangel systems.

"They will be in range of the fixed defenses momentarily ma'am" Tac calls out once again, the announcements somehow helping to keep me calm.

It doesn't take long, the moment a quarter of the American attack crafts are in range the city lights up like a firecracker as missiles start flying en mass from hundreds of Archangel systems, streams of tracer fire from the auto-cannons pour into the sky tearing apart the American jets like tissue paper, the missiles going for direct impacts and obliterating just as many as the auto-cannons.

In less then thirty seconds the American fighters are down another thousand planes, lowering their numbers to an even five thousand.

"Fighters are attempting to break off ma'am!" Tac hollers out as the plot shows just that, American fighters desperately trying to break off their engagements in order to avoid the CIWS fire.

"Right then. Have our remaining pilots hold in the defense perimeter, If they want us that bad then they can come and get us." I say smugly. The first part of the battle plan had been a success.

"Is their ground element still advancing?" I ask.

"Yes Ma'am there about to enter the engagement zone." I'm told.

Said engagement zone was the designated area were all artillery pieces available to us were zeroed in on, and were several hundred Goliath armed soldiers were constantly updating their targeting data while they wait to counter attack.

"Alright, are the cannons ready with the planed fire plans?"

"Affirmative ma'am, first mag will be high explosive, the second will be half HE and half white phosphorous." he says and I nod, my expression tightening for a moment.

"Begin the bombardment as soon as they reach the middle of the zone." order, a hard edge to my voice.

UoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoF

Livin' easy

Lovin' free

Season ticket on a one way ride

Askin' nothin'

Leave me be

Takin' everythin' in my stride

Don't need reason

Don't need rhyme

Ain't nothin' that I'd rather do

Goin' down

Party time

My friends are gonna be there too

I'm on the highway to hell

On the highway to hell

Highway to hell

I'm on the highway to hell

"Come on man! Shut that shit off!" Barnes shouts at Corporal Jenkins from the mounted M2 machine gun on the top of the Humvee.

"Fine! Christ, what else do you want to listen to!? Oh, that's right! THERE'S ONLY ONE SONG PLAYING ON THE RADIO!" he shouts back in annoyance.

"Hey, both of you, can it!" Sargent Halsey shouts out as the music finally cuts out.

"Look alive marines! Our fly-boys are about to open up a can of whoop-ass on these poor bastards!" he shouts out as the tanks in front of him come to stop, halting the column as they stare at the massive formation of jets flying above them.

Moments later an ungodly roaring can be heard coming from farther along in the column, indicating a massive missile launch.

"And that gentlemen is good 'ole fashin DE-VINE INTERVENTION IN THE FORM OF HIGH EXPLOSIVE FIREPOWER!" Anderson shouts out from the back of the vehicle as the missiles track towards the horizon, where another flight of missiles could be seen, these ones heading straight for the American air formation.

As they get closer and closer to each other they could be seen maneuvering in wide turns, trying to confuse the American counter missiles. This tactic is only marginally successful, and the vast majority of counter missiles impact their targets.

"Hell yea!" someone is heard shouting as the sky is consumed in a wall of fire, the cheering doesn't last long however as hundreds of missiles are seen breaking through the firewall and heading towards their targets.

"Ah _fuck_." Halsey says simply as they track closer.

"Hey, at least there's only that many of them. Could be worse." Anderson says with a shrug. His words are proved right a moment later as with the fairings of the missiles are seen releasing with a few glints of light, before the few hundred missile trails turn into a few thousand.

"Holy mother of god! You **HAD TO FUCKING SAY IT DIDN'T YOU ANDERSON**!?" Halsey shouts out.

" _Fuck_." he says simply in response as the missiles start impacting the formation in their own wall of fire directly above them.

"Time to _gooooo_!" Jenkins shouts as one of the lower flying jets that was hit crashes to the ground in a fireball, consuming a nearby Humvee.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Halsey shouts as he stomps on the gas, a sentiment most of the formation shares as it starts advancing at a decent speed once more.

"Jesus Christ! Look at that!" Barnes shouts out as the American fighters return fire in their own massive barrage. They watch as it tracks towards the much smaller formation of aircraft just above the city they were approaching.

"HELLZ YEA!" Anderson shouts out as it passes through the counter barrage with ease, much as the unions had, even the popcorn like explosions throughout their own aircraft didn't keep him from cheering this time as many of the missiles can be seen destroying the traitors air power.

"Alright marines! That's enough, the fly-boys are doing their job now its time to do ours! You all know what we have to do! As soon as we make it to the trench line dismount and start clearing it! I know its not going to be pretty, and we will be under fire but this is what we signed up for! We're marines! Not the army, not the air force! We're the tip of the spear gentlemen! And it's out job to open up a route for everyone else! Do you get me!?" their Sargent shouts out, getting a loud affirmative from them as the formation races closer and closer, finally passing into the three miles of no-mans land before the trenches.

The effects don't last long, as not five seconds after he's done speaking, the city lights up like a Christmas tree as missile and tracer fire can be seen lancing out of the city, slamming into the air battle above their heads, utterly mauling their air power.

" _Sweet Jesus!_ " someone shouts over the din of explosions as the American craft can be seen withdrawing past the range of their fixed defenses.

"Well this just got that much harder. Fuck my life." Barnes sums it up quite well.

"Keep a lid on it!" the sarge shouts out immediately after he speaks, leaving them in silence for the next minute.

"Somethings not right here." he says as he looks around the column, which was just about past the edge of the forest and into the three miles of open ground before the trenches, and as if summoned by his words, over the roar of the engine loud booms can be heard echoing in the distance.

" _ **INCOMINNNNG!**_ " he shouts out as he slams on the breaks, the rest of the formation following suit within seconds.

A tactic, that would have been advisable thirty years ago, as who knew how long the barrage would last? Best to sit it out and hope you don't get hit right?

Wrong.

Thanks to modern computing technology, a concept known as a "Time on target barrage" was possible. By lowering the angle of their guns every round, it was possible to coordinate your attacks so more shells would impact at the same time.

Add in the fact that the union had a total of twenty five rapid fire 155mm "Vulcan" artillery cannons on the field, all of which could land ten rounds on a target area fifty meters wide in the same three seconds?

It was a complete and total **slaughter.**

 _Nothing_ within the hundred and fifty yard radius of the barrage was left intact, it was as if hell itself come alive as the ground started shaking with the impact of two hundred and fifty shells, all of which spawned a fireball of heat pressure and shrapnel.

After a few minuscule seconds of hell on earth, the silence is deafening as those left alive look around the area. In a miraculous stroke of luck, Halsey's Humvee was only flipped, leaving his squad alive and unhurt, save for a few bumps and bruises.

"Jesus fucking Christ! What the hell was that!?" Jenkins shouts out as he kicks the door open and crawls out of the vehicle.

What he sees around him takes his breath away.

All that remains of half the advance force are twisted smoking hulks of what used to be heavily armored vehicles.

"My god..." he says quietly as the rest of the squad joins him.

" **MEDIC**!" someone shouts, and as if that was some sort of signal, the screaming starts in full as survivors try to save the wounded.

"Anderson! Get on your radio! We need more medical personnel up here!" Jenkins shouts out as he runs to the twisted hulk of a the Humvee that was on their right, the driver somehow still alive, his face was covered in blood and his arms were shredded stumps of meat just below the elbows.

As he's reaching into his aid pack for tourniquets to stop the bleeding however, another booming sounds ominously in the distance.

" **SONOVABITCH! TAKE COVER!** " Halsey screams out as he pulls Anderson and Barnes down before crawling into the upturned hummer for some measure of protection.

Its all for naught however, as in the second massive barrage, three quarters of Delta squad, Alpha company, First Battalion of the First marine division ceases to exist in a direct hit from a high explosive shell, turning them and the hummer into unrecognizable scrap and chunks of meat.

They were the lucky ones, for intermixed with this barrage were a hundred and twenty five air-burst shells loaded with white phosphorus.

The substance was ignited upon the detonation of the shell, raining the ground below in chunks burning at temperatures reaching into the thousands.

For those that didn't instantly die like corporal Jenkins and the man he was trying to save, it was a relatively slow, and _incredibly, brutally painful_ death as pieces of the material sticks to them. Instantly burning through their gear and scorching their skin into blackened crisps, in many cases it keeps burning until it reaches the bone, and even then it keeps burning, leaving those unlucky enough to survive this far screaming in pain and praying to every god they know to make it stop until they fall unconscious from the shock and pain.

Thanks to the Unions recon drones, the whole nation witnessed it.

It wasn't over however, for as many are on the ground screaming, there are more still advancing to lend aid.

What happens next, no one can see coming, as with a resounding shout, fire starts pouring out of the trees, streams of .50 caliber tri-barrels light up the line of approaching vehicles, tearing into the Humvee's like they were made of tissue paper, turning their contents into shredded meat in moments given the thousand round a minute the weapon was capable of.

30mm rail-cannon rounds punch through even the mighty M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks main armor like it wasn't even there, and within seconds of the shout, the advance is once again being mauled by the union, this time in the form of one thousand men and women armed with Goliath armored exoskeletons, and as they start coming into view, music starts playing from their external speakers at an earsplitting volume, matching the song now playing on the broadcast.

In the beginning there was silence and darkness

All across the earth

Then came the wind and a hole in the sky

Thunder and lightning came crashing down

Hit the earth and split the ground

Fire burned high in the sky

From down below fire melted the stone

The ground shook and started to pound

The gods made heavy metal and they saw that is was good

They said to play it louder than Hell

We promised that we would

When losers say it's over with you know that it's a lie

The gods made heavy metal and it's never gonna die

We are the true believers

It's our turn to show the world

In the fire of heavy metal we were burned

It's more than our religion it's the only way to live

But the enemies of metal we can't forgive

Cause we believe in the power and the might

And the gods who made metal are with us tonight

As they advance, sowing chaos and destruction in their wake the American troops start returning fire as their shock fades, they may well have been firing pellet guns for all the good their weapons did against the Goliath suits, for the only weapons they had that were capable of breaching the suits were their anti-tank missiles and their own tanks cannons. Therein lay the problem however, as every tank and heavy weapons specialist was tagged and marked as a high priority target on the suits advanced targeting software, meaning most of them never had the chance to fire their weapons.

At the same time, the American air formation was massing for a second attack on the city, it was for naught however as just before they crossed into the Archangels area of influence the fleet offshore opens up with another massive salvo of cluster missiles, this one containing over six hundred of them.

This time, no amount of countermeasures launched by the formation was enough to save them, and every last jet left in the air broadcasting American IFF was turned into a wreck of twisted metal on a ballistic trajectory.

It was then, just as the rest of the unions armored vehicles and heavy infantry were reaching the ambush site that their air power was able to attack the Americans ground force unmolested.

If the Americans didn't realize how completely the battle against them, the contentious rain of ordinance from the Unions air force was a pretty good indication. But the final nail in the coffin was the last launch of cruise missiles from the fleet, this one targeting the ground element, and these were not "Scatterbird" cruise missiles, but rather "Hellfire" cruise missiles. In this variant, the cluster missiles release dozens of their own sub-munitions, each as powerful as a pound of C-4 plastic explosive. These weapons bring new meaning to the phrase "Raining down hell" on your enemy.

When the fleet is finished launching, four hundred cruise missiles are in the air, arching high the go for a near vertical angel of attack, and as they start arching downward, they release the cluster missiles, which rocket the rest of the way downwards, at a half mile altitude however, these ones start to spine wildly before releasing their own fairing, letting the bomblets contained within them to scatter due to the centrifugal force of the spin.

From four hundred cruise missiles, forty eight hundred cluster missiles are unleashed, and from them one hundred fifteen thousand and two hundred bomblets are scattered over the entire column of American troops, turning the area they impacted into a scene from Dante's inferno.

All that remained was the mopping up of the scattered survivors, and the leveling of their forward operating base, which was taking care of by the unions ground and air force respectively.

UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF UoF

"Start another saturation broadcast please." I say and a moment later I'm on.

"Once more America. Once more your leaders have sent your sons and daughters, your brothers and sisters, friends around, To there deaths. I warned them, pleaded with them to cease there futile attempts but they did not listen. And I am ashamed to tell you over a hundred thousand men and women have just perished in an attempt to assault old union city." feeling nauseated I take a breath before going on.

"This message I address to the your nations military. I ask you to rise up. To defy your leaders, I ask you in hopes that you will listen were other have not. That you will choose life over death. When the order comes you have a choice. You may march to your deaths, as we have demonstrated here today that there is no possible outcome were you are victorious. Or you may say no, and to those that refuse to die I offer citizenship in the Union of Freedom. As before, any attempting to stop those from leaving will be dealt with. Do not think you have no voice, for we are monitoring radio traffic, and there are over five thousand public radio broadcast stations across the country. If you wish to leave, let your voice be heard!" I shout at the end smiling as I nod to my coms officer and he mutes the broadcast.

"Fourth song Andy, loop it." I say simple and he nods once more picking up the mp3 player that had been broadcasting for the past week, switching tracks the music picks up once more.

Hear the sound of a machinegun

Hear it echo in the night

Mortals firing rains the scene

Scars the fields

that once were green

It's a stalemate at the frontline

where the soldiers rest in mud

roads and houses

all is gone

there is no glory to be won

know that many men will suffer

know that many men will die

half a million lives at stake

Ask the fields of Passchendaele

And as the night falls the general calls

and the battle carries on and on

How long?

What is the purpose of it all

What's the price of a mile?

Thousands of feet march to the beat

It's an army on the march

Long way from home

Paying the price in young men's lives

Thousands of feet march to the beat

It's an army in despair

Knee-deep in mud

Stuck in the trench with no way out

Thousands of machineguns

Kept on firing through the night

Mortars blazed and wrecked the scene

Guns in the fields that once were green

Still a deadlock at the frontline

Where the soldiers die in mud

roads and houses since long gone

still no glory has been won

know that many men has suffered

know that many men has died

Six miles of ground has been won

Half a million men are gone

And as the men crawled the general called

And the killing carried on and on

How long?

What's the purpose of it all?

What's the price of a mile?

Thousands of feet march to the beat

It's an army on the march

Long way from home

Paying the price in young men's lives

Thousands of feet march to the beat

It's an army in despair

Knee-deep in mud

Stuck in the trench with no way out

Young men are dying

They pay the price

Oh how they suffer

So tell me what's the price of a mile

That's the price of a mile.

Thousands of feet march to the beat

It's an army on the march

Long way from home

Paying the price in young men's lives

Thousands of feet march to the beat

It's an army in despair

Knee-deep in mud

Stuck in the trench with no way out

Standing back up I straighten out my shirt.

"Open coms to the capitol." I say simply. thirty seconds later the screen changes to that of the operation room under the white house which is in utter chaos.

"ahehm." I clear my throat slightly getting there attention. To which they all stare at the screen slack jawed.

"I warned you. Time and time again I told you what would happen if you attacked us yet you refuse to listen to reason. Any further attempt to assault old union city will result in the complete annihilation of your nations military. I will say it one last time. DONT. FUCK. WITH. ME!" I scream out the last four words before cutting the channel and sitting down, waiting for the next act to open up.

I don't have to wait long.

"What the hell!?" the sensor operator shouts as his screen starts fuzzing in and out.

" **CYBER ATTACK!** " ops shouts as systems across the room start going crazy,

"The first line of firewalls are crumbling! The system wont last long!" ops shouts. sighing I get up and go to the coms station.

"Enough is _**enough.**_ " I grind out before entering a few rapid fire commands and fifteen seconds later the attack stops as every single crystal cored computer registered to the military fries itself upon receiving a command activating the self destruct protocol hidden within it.

Every last piece of military equipment America had that utilized a photonic processor was now a glorified paperweight.

"What did you just do?" William asks confused and I smile widely.

"Activated a fail-safe protocol, there using our computer tech against us, do you really think I wouldn't safeguard against that?"

"Amazing" he says simply in triumph yet the moment is ruined when a claxon starts blaring and a red warning light starts flashing.

"oh fuck _no_." I say shooting to my feet.

"Launch! Orbital thermal imagery is tracking fifteen launches from known ICB sites in North Dakota! Trajectory analysis indicates there heading for new and old union city!" ops shouts in panic and I snap to the weapons officer.

"Initiate the galaxy defense system **now!** Get our birds in position!" I scream referring to the several orbiting satellite lasers powered by a miniaturized Fusion reactor.

"System coming online, targets are locking in. three platforms are in position to take down the missiles." he shouts and I nod.

"Take em out." I command starting a chain reaction, in seconds the three locked missiles are slag as the lasers engage them at maximum power, a foot wide beam lances down through the atmosphere causing the very air around it to roil from the heat. In less then a millisecond each of the three missiles are flying slag on a ballistic trajectory, the earth beneath them is set a blaze as the beams burn past the missiles, torching a line through to corn fields and in the third case flash frying a bovine.

"Three down, changing targets and cycling coolant." he says as the platforms alter there angel and liquid helium at _**two degrees**_ above absolute zero is cycled through the lasing chamber were its flashed to steam and ejected into twin ports on either side of the weapon.

"Firing... cycling... firing... cycling..." four more times this process happens before all the missiles are destroyed.

"Target all know silos, I want them gone yesterday, and shed the decoy housing. Deploy the heat-sinks and radiators." I say in reference to the housing the satellite lasers were mounted in, which was designed to look like an oversized communication satellite, without it they were able to unfold massive radiators and heat-sinks, allowing for a much longer duration of fire to be sustained, and while the coolant could still be used for rapid or contentious fire, they were a finite resource, and restocking it was an expensive prospect. As it was they were capable of sustaining a beam for fifteen seconds, with one minute cool-downs.

"open coms, world wide saturation." I order simply.

"People of earth, I am speaking to you from just outside old union city were minutes ago the commander in chief of the United States launched no less then fifteen nuclear capable ICBM's at the capitol of the union of freedom and old union city. This has gone to far. From this moment forward my nations military is commencing an all out attack on any and all American military asset. I give you this warning that this attack is not limited to the home land. Any base operated by the united states of America around the world is an open target. Unless president Morra ends this war within the day, we will start commencing operations against said bases." I announce with a tone that could freeze hell over.

"We just declared war on half the world didn't we?" Alexander says and I snort shaking my head.

"by the time we're done with the bases in state they will surrender, trust me." I say simply as I turn to the admiral.

"ill leave you to coordinate strikes on there military assets, ill work on getting out people out of here." to which he nods solemnly, allowing me to leave the room.

aaannnnd thats a wrap! i gotta say, this has been some of the funnest writing ive ever done in my life. i had a hell of a time being as descriptive as humanly possible about the horrors of war, and offering the best immersion i possibly can with the music. the only other thing i recommend, IF YOUR OK WITH IT is to light up some high quality mary jane. or as i call it, a writers little helper. i mean shesh, i totally forgot thats how i managed to write what i have so far, now that i remembered i added another fifty pages to what i had!

but yes, anyway! i hope i satisfied everyone's expectations for this chapter, i did my best to incorporate as many aspects of the modern battlefield as i possibly could, but i gotta tell you, between researching all the systems i included in it to make it believable, i have come to the conclusion that there is the point were you have to "Hurry up and get it out there" and your best bet is to do as much as you reasonably can in that timeframe ^^

now! questions! comments? critique? im up for it all.


	7. Interlude One

And here we are! First interulude good to go, I know its quite short, ive been rather burned out as of late after expunging that last chapter outa my pink sponge, however most of the blame goes the fact that ive upgraded my GPU from an 8800GS to a750GTX, all I have to say is my GOD! Its full of stars! Eve is such a beautiful game on max settings.

Anyway! I tried to go with an observers perspective for this one, third person I think its called? Anyway its a bit short yes but the next one, and I know im going to regret saying this. Should come out faster as a lot of it is already write, I just have to add some bits and bobs here and there to bring it up to snuff.

That being said im calling mah readers out! I wanna hear what you think of the story thus far, and were you would want to see it go, its hearing from you that keeps me going after all.

Anyway! Onto the story!

* * *

 _When they see us they will run for there lives  
To the end they will pay for their lies  
So long did we wait, now we are home_

 _Here once again there's a battle to fight  
Gather together for the sound and the might  
So long did we wait now we are home_

 _Now we will fight for the Kingdom fighting with steel  
Kill all of them, their blood is our seal  
Fight till the last of the enemy is dead  
Ride through their blood that we gladly have shed_

 _I now issue the call, are you ready to fight - yeah  
Fight all together as one for the right to be free once again  
Tonight we will win_

 _I can see by the look that you have in your eyes  
You came here for metal, to fight and to die  
Defenders of Steel now we are home_

 _Fight for the kingdom bound for glory  
Armed with a heart of steel  
I swear by the Brothers who stand before me  
To no man shall I kneel  
Their blood is upon my steel  
Blood is upon my steel_

 _Fight for the Kingdom fighting with steel  
Kill all of them, their blood is our seal  
Fight till the last of the enemy is dead  
Ride through their blood that we gladly have shed_

 _I now issue the call, are you ready to fight – yeah  
Fight all together as one for the right to be free once again  
Tonight we will win_

 _I can see by the look that you have in your eyes  
You came here for metal, to fight and to die  
Defenders of Steel now we are home_

 _Fight for the kingdom bound for glory  
Armed with a heart of steel  
I swear by the Brothers who stand before me  
To no man shall I kneel  
Their blood is upon my steel_

"Its that song that had been the latest obsession with my thoughts, and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense, I can seriously see something like that happening!" One Elena cross says (no relation), a transgender teen who had experienced the horror of having family reject who you are at the very core of your being, making the subsequent year a very struggle to live, with many nights spent in a homeless shelter.

It was here that she discovered marijuana for the first time, and with it she had the luck to be one of the ones it benefited immensely from it, finally finding enough confidence to start working on her "Problem"

it has been six years since she found out who she and was the happiest women alive, however she also understands just how lucky she was, as the past four years later society view and opinion of people like her has fallen greatly, and to anyone who knew what kind of person she was she was merely a second class citizen, a situation that was identical to millions of American's in the more introverted side of their country's society.

When she started looking into her options she found many an internet group or website were people were in similar positions, be it being metaphorically crushed by the mounting weight of society on your shoulders in the form of a lower wage and a higher cost of living, or something as simple as being outcast's from their family. A few rare ones were brave enough to look for this without any crushing situation to deal with, these were the ones who just wanted to help, of which there were many, some needed a push, some did not.

Either way it was an unwritten fact when you dug deep enough into the subject, one of those people monitor your internet usage are supposedly going to make a call to someone who also make a call, all the way up the top of the chain of command until someone takes notice who can authorize direct action, which resulted in the disappearance of said person.

Of course that may not have been the case given the fact that the union was 95 percent of the country's internet service providers.

It was thanks to this fact that what really happened is that everyone who dared to toe across that line and keep researching the subject was scouted by the Union and asked a series of hypothetical questions.

Those who passed their test were informed about their intentions and resources to make it possible. There were those like Elena who were scouted for discussing this over the internet via voice chat, as though noone knew it, these were the ones asked to fight for their cause and take part in the rebellion directly, and there were also ones that needed the metaphorical "Push" they were found by simply analyzing their internet history with a simple computer program, this was possible thanks to the nearly unlimited amount of processing power that can be achieved with logic crystals.

That push came in the form of subliminal messaging, emphasize a word here, change one there, and suddenly something innocent can be a powerful message.

They just happened to luck out with a ready supply of said messages that were already in existence. To an above average person, which really doesn't take much these days, it would be a fairly obvious message, and a powerful one at that, causing them to start digging for information.

These ones were offered a more indirect role in the rebellion themselves, they instead were the ones to work on the new Union city project, and were promised a spot in union city immediately following the deceleration.

Finally there were the ones that really needed a push, and it came in the form of the unions crushing victory, it was these ones who were actually all a key linchpin in the unions plan to victory, for it was them all rising up together that would force the united states to end the war, for they would never again be able to field a greater amount of numbers in any attack.

It was when these ones joined the movement, that Americans ability to fight the union was reduced from low, to impossible.

Thanks to this, that four days after their initial victory that a resigned sounding and looking president Morra announced his resignation, leaving the country to his VP. It was less then four hours later that he was found in his private quarters with a hole in his head, the .45 pistol still in his limp hand.

Of course what the world would never know was that this was a clone created with the help of Asgard technology, leaving its brain empty save for basic life sustaining functions, and thanks to the time-dilation field used to create it, not even carbon dating would give the ruse away.

This was the final straw for many, and almost as one they rose up and broke through the barricades and the troops manning them. Many of whom didn't want to be maintaining the martial law the country was put under by Morra, and if to add insult injury to the remaining leadership of the country this is when the union started a new Propaganda broadcast

Strike while the iron is hot  
Steel is strongest so say we all  
And if we all were not brothers of metal would we fall? _**NO!**_  
They tried to test our spirit  
They tasted steel before we were done  
Grinding their bones into the dust of the past  
All blown away like a shot from a gun

We cast our lot together four still stand as one  
Here we'll remain forever till our kingdoms one

 ** _BROTHERS OF METAL!_**  
We are fighting with power and steel  
Fighting for metal that's all that's real  
Brothers of metal will always be there  
Standing together with hands in the air

Let us drink to the power drink to the sound  
Thunder and metal are shaking the ground  
Drink to your brothers who are never to fall  
We're all brothers of metal here in the hall

Our hearts are filled with metal and masters we have none  
And we will die for metal, metal heals, my son

 ** _BROTHERS OF METAL!_**  
We are fighting with power and steel  
Fighting for metal that's all that's real  
Brothers of metal will always be there  
Standing together with hands in the air

Let us drink to the power drink to the sound  
Thunder and metal are shaking the ground  
Drink to your brothers who are never to fall  
We're all brothers of metal here in the _**haaall!**_

 ** _BROTHERS OF METAL!_**  
We are fighting with power and steel  
Fighting for metal that's all that's real  
Brothers of metal will always be there  
Standing together with hands in the air

 ** _BROTHERS OF METAL!_**

It was this song, and the video accompanying it, showing thousands of refugees flocking to Union city that was the final weight that broke the American governments resolve.

It was then a cease fire was declared, it was clear however that the American leadership was not done yet, as when the announcement was made, the statement was worded that "No further military action shall be taken against the rebels at this time."

Yet, despite the fact that the country refused to recognize the Union as sovereign nation, the martial law was lifted and the flood of refugees became a tsunami. Within the first three weeks Union city was filled to its well over its maximum capacity, many sharing living quarters, prompting the Union to make good on its promise of a basic living stipend.

In order to do this they utilized the rapid and mass production of smart crops, making history by producing enough food to not only feed the people in and surrounding union city, but the send out supply convoys to those who were forced to start walking due to the mass gridlock of the nations road systems.

The fact that people on the east coast were actually attempting to walk to the west spoke more then any words could to the mutilated monstrosity that America had become, that they were willing to gamble everything they had on the Union was a message none could convey in words and it was this weight of responsibility that was placed on Rose's shoulders...

* * *

Hope it was acceptable, I tried to convey what the average, and above average citizen thought and felt during the years leading up to the Unions deceleration of independence, and how the use of propaganda effects the outcome of wars.

That being said, my final hint for the next reality, bit of a dead giveaway buuuut. Lets just go with "White Glint"


	8. Chapter 7

Here we go again! I cant thank you guys enough for all the input you've given me. you have been instrumental in my growth as a writer, and for that i am gratefull.

that being said i did my best to address lessens learned from the flaws in the previous chapter, and i think. think mind you that i have done pretty damn well. that is not to say its perfected, infact this hasn't even been beta read yet, which leads me to my next request. I need Beta's i am extremely grateful to gollum and pipefox but as it stands they have their own stuff in life right now and cant match the pace i wish to post these chapters, which if im lucky will only increase.

now! onto the story, ive implemented a new system of music, as i believe it really helps immerse you in the story and get in that visualization mood, even if you aren't puffing, so on spacebattles ill be hotlinking the songs, and for those who read at they name of the artist and title will be in place were you should start playing the music.

ok! for realz this time!

[Start: Below the Asetriods. Jón Hallur]

The following weeks are hectic, and I'm lucky if I get twelve hours of sleep each week, especially considering there were several tense moments when ground units were sent out to the surrounding city's in order to offer those who wanted it safe passage to the old city and encountered their American counterparts, resulting in tense standoffs until the order was kicked down the chain of command to let our men pass.

In a move that was pre-planed by myself and Edward "his" body was found in an apparent suicide two weeks after the second battle of Union city. When in reality he was on the Thor researching all available material on the reality's I had in mind to visit next. Thanks to this the American government's resolve was completely shattered, and the cessation of hostility's commenced exactly as planned.

Now that the threat of attack was reduced the city's original inhabitants were evacuated within the first month and a half after the second battle, however it was quickly apparent that we would run out of room very quickly as despite constant ferrying via the transport ships, the population stayed around five million, and it was clear from the media reports of mass migration that it was quickly start growing, thus the basic living stipend that was promised, was put into effect. Crops were grown and harvested on a scale never before seen to not only feed everyone in old Union city but those on there way to it as well.

A four months after the first transports left shore, The capitol city was filled to capacity. The old city very quickly overflowed with migrants, and a tent city was set up just outside of it. Food being grown on site was supplying everyone thanks to the new Gene-modded crops, and thanks to miniaturized purifiers water was being desalinized in massive amounts, clothing was being produced around the clock in order to keep up with the basic living stipend.

The transport ships were re-purpesed for the time being, being used to ferry construction supply's to the framework of the next to lilly-pad city's, to be named Freedom and Triumph, along with any volunteer who had experience in steelwork and construction.

It is on the eve of the Fifth month I put the next stage of my plan into action, transferring command to William I board the flagship of the second fleet, the second enterprise class carrier to come into production, were a sub-orbital transport plane was awaiting me. The Cross was a ship worthy of her class.

In a record time of an hour and a half, the transport was in Swiss airspace, once again shocking the world as the news story goes viral less then ten minutes after my arrival, given that the launch of my flight was broadcast worldwide.

Over the course of the next twelve hours I'm forced to go through the political red tape involved in a situation such as this, in the end however I ended up bulldozing my way through it with some harsh words and suggestions, lighting the metaphorical fire under the United Nation's asses given the complete and utter dominance of the Union's trade and technology around the world.

The results were as expected, for in a record time of three days nearly all the member nations were gathered in the assembly building in Geneva to decide as a whole on wither or not to recognize the Union of Freedom as a Sovereign nation.

[End: Below the Asetriods. Jón Hallur]

UoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoF

[Start: Auracle Music-Stand And Fight]

"I'm going to keep this brief, as your all no doubt aware I my schedule is fairly full what with evacuating tens of millions of people from the Tyranny their nation has put them under."

"The Union of Freedom is a sovereign nation wither you like it or not. And unless there is one hundred percent vote in favor, you can consider a complete and total trade embargo of any Union designed asset. Which given that the Union is completely self-sufficient, we will be able to maintain it indefinitely. So I say this, don't be stupid. Get your head out of your ass and accept that times are changing, and if you don't, well. Don't come crying to me when the status qou changes, and your citizens deiced life in the union is better then at home." I say with the coldest chill I can muster in my voice, before switching to a thousand watt smile a moment later, moving to step away from the podium before darting back to the mic a moment later.

"Oh! I almost forgot to mention, the Union's official stance on foreign policy is that anyone preventing their citizens from immigration is a valid target for military intervention." I say innocently, keeping the smile on my face the whole time.

Needless to say, there was a hundred percent unanimous vote recognizing the Union of Freedom as a Nation, along with announcing trade embargo's unless the United states acknowledges the fact as well, effectively hammering in the final nail in the nations coffin.

The coming weeks and months are absolutely insane, the tent city outside the old city keeps growing reaching more then fifty million people, it was in short a logistical nightmare. But nonetheless the basic living stipend was enforced, even going as far as to build hundreds of thousands prefabricated trailer homes in order to keep everyone housed in a safe environment.

Transforming the old Union tower into a headquarters I took the challenge head on, with precious little sleep and copious use of my nanites to scrub fatigue products from my system I pulled it off. Six months later freedom and triumph came online. causing The second mass immigration, using a much larger fleet of transports thanks to the ceasefire between the Union and the states the processes moved along much faster, and within the seventh month old union city was nearly empty, the flood of hundreds of thousands and millions down to a trickle of a ten or twenty thousand a day.

Feeling more confidant with Freedom and Triumph online I returned to the capitol to start the monumental task of building a new country from scratch, drafting a constitution the emphasized personal freedoms and the right to pursue your dreams, along with extremely strict laws limiting the power of individual corporations, along with the first common sense law in human history. It was primed to become the worlds first true utopian super power.

Over the course of the next year two more city's come online and the doors open to immigrants from around the world, of which there is a massive influx, filling them in a matter of months. At the same time several smaller "pads" as they had come to be called are built around the residential ones all of them interconnected by retractable bridges and mag-lev trains. These facility's were dedicated to manufacturing work and deep sea mining, which took place in sprawling complexes on the ocean floor beneath the city's tether to the surface by elevator platforms.

Food was supplied from several livestock pads along with the utilization of all available surface area on the roofs of the city, the crop output was simply astounding, not only feeding the populace but allowing for a significant export, all of which went to poverty stricken country free of charge making the Freedom corps as it was called the worlds new major humanitarian organization.

As world affair's stabilize things go on much the same they did before the Union seceded. America was still a shell of its former self, now in the worst economic depression the nation had ever seen with the loss of ninety percent of its production capability, slowly but surely it crumbles.

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It is six years later when the inevitable happens and America declares itself bankrupt.

Using the incredible amount of wealth at the unions disposal we make history by bailing it out of the metaphorical gutter. By making a spectacle out of it with a propaganda campaign we are seen as a child taking care of its parent, its thanks to this that we absorb the country in all but name, once more bringing online thousands of Union factory's, research labs and refinery's on U.S. soil. Which is shortly followed by many incredibly wide sweeping law changes, along with a few amendments to the Constitution, the top five percent were dethroned, forced to settle with what they had rather then constantly going for more, the middle class were once again allowed to work jobs and hours that were suitable to there wants rather then there needs.

Quite possibly the most important change was in the election process, the elimination of the electoral collage was only one groundbreaking change. Candidates themselves were chosen for there experience and qualifications rather then pure popularity, along with this change a voter scoring system was enacted, nearly identical to the unions, the power of an individuals vote was no longer set in stone, instead it was set on a scale of one to ten points, with a base score of five it was possible to strengthen ones vote depending on educational experience, work history and criminal background, or lessen it, This was done to mitigate the damage of the metaphorical dropout voting for someone because they liked there hairstyle so to say.

Within the year of the bail out new elections were held and for the first time in nearly two decades a President, Senate and Congress was elected that was more worried about seeing the country prosper rather then themselves.

And so, time went on. As I approached thirty four in my own age I decided it was time once more to accelerate humanity progress. Starting with several dozen space mission launches conducted within a three week time period, the worlds attention was once more directed to the union, and speculation on what this project was ran rampant.

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[Start: Position Music - Praetorian Guards]

Union city.

Freedom stadium.

"Were on in three ma'am." my assistant says to me and I nod as I shake myself out psyching myself up for the coming presentation which was sure to alter the worlds in was I could only imagine. The time passed all to fast as I find myself standing in-front of a podium surrounded by tens of thousands of citizens and hundreds of news crews from around the world.

"Ladies and gentlemen. People of earth. As I said all those years ago at MIT, every so often there are technological breakthroughs that are game changers. My nation and I have been responsible for nearly all of the most recent breakthroughs, and I am standing here today to tell you the next breakthrough is here." I announce strongly smiling as the flashbulbs start flashing.

"Recently Union genetics and alloys have completed a joint venture, cracking and idea that has long been science fiction, and following the status quo of the Union, we are once more turning fiction into fact." I say with a smile

"This breakthrough was a practical carbon fiber, with similar quality's to spider silk, making it over one hundred times stronger, and five hundred times lighter then a bundle of tri-taium cable of the same diameter." I announce and the crowd of reporters erupts in questions and I hold my hands out quieting them.

"Now as I'm sure your all wondering what we are currently planing on using this for. And I will be honest with you, its unlike anything you have ever imagined, even for the union." smiling I pause for dramatic effect.

"The latest string of space missions were key to this project, as they assembled and placed the end point for the Union space tether." I announce and the crowd of reporters goes nuts. Ignoring them I speak raising my voice.

"If you will turn your eyes skyward, towards union tower at the city center, you will see the anchoring process of the worlds first space elevator taking place." I say as I motion with my hands and everyone looks to the tower clearly visible from the stadium, and they all gasp as the look skywards above it to see, what appears to be a thin black string falling from the clouds towards the tower, while in reality it is a five foot thick bundle of the fore-mentioned carbon fiber, that was unreeled from space and lowered into the atmosphere directly above union city.

"Ladies and gentleman, I am proud to announce the start of construction of the space elevator Heavens Pillar." I announce as the cable touches the top of Union tower.

"When this marvel of man made engineering is complete, I am pleased to say that the final frontier will be assessable to us on a scale never before imagined. Current estimations are that in ten years the elevator will be functional at twenty five percent capacity, capable of carrying two-hundred and fifty tons of material into space in the span of hours, and with that inter-planetary ships may be constructed. City's on the moon and Mars will be a reality within the next thirty years."

The silence is deafening as people process what this means, before ten seconds later everyone erupts in cheers.

For the next ten minutes I cant get a word id edgewise and I just stand there smiling and waving, finally when things start to calm down I speak.

"This tether is only the first step in the construction of heavens pillar, a total of eight more space tethers will be constructed in an octagonal formation around the city, using these as a base construction efforts will begin on the elevator itself, utilizing massive amounts of tri-tanium and the new carbon fiber in solid form to support them. Over the course of the next twenty five years this triumph of mankind's technological might will be constructed." I announce smiling at as the reporters go wild.

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The following months and years are once more blur of activity, in the first few weeks there's a launch every day as more and more bundles of the C-cable as it had been named is lifted into space, within the first three months the remaining eight tethers are anchored around the tower, and construction begins wholesale, using massive amounts of minerals mined from the ocean floor and the Continent of north America the long process begins, starting with the c-beam framework spanning between the cables giving them a much stronger measure of rigidity. Slowly but surely it grows, and within the first six months a mile of the lattice work is present and work begins on the shell using massive 50'x50' panels of tri-tanium they are anchored to the pillar. Progress is much slower than the structural lattice work but still speedy considering and Is only predicted to get faster as more and more specialized automated equipment is designed and built to work the more dangerous jobs As it passes the top of union tower a massive construction platform is anchored to the tethers, designed to move with the construction it is the basis of the elevator.

Funding the colossal operation directly from the Union's coffers several new technology's are unveiled. The next generation of logic crystals and heat converters are released, bringing in trillions each year that goes directly to the tower construction, food and fuel exports maintain the country itself, alongside the massive automotive industry.

Within the first year the lattice work of the pillar passes into the realm of space at an altitude of one hundred kilometers, slowing construction somewhat as crews are now limited in there work-time based on there oxygen supply. No longer can condensers concentrate air from the upper atmosphere, the solution was astoundingly simple. Along all the tethers carbon fiber hoses are laid pumping up air from sea level to the current altitude of construction, were it is then connected to the workers space suits by a small hose of the same material. To ease the adjustment from high altitude and gravity to low orbit and no atmosphere a new generation of space suits are design utilizing the same fiber that makes the pillar possible, these suits are near skin tight, allowing for a much larger range of flexibility, and thus more productivity.

As the years go on progress proceeds at a breakneck pace, the lattice coming it lighting fast com paired to the shell, and five years in in celebrations are made as it passes the halfway point at 17,893 kilometer mark.

As the construction progresses I micromanage the nation less and less, freeing up time to take "Vacations" when in reality I was using the Thor to head to planets rich in naquada tritium and carbon, along with towing massive asteroids of said minerals into the asteroid belt in between Jupiter and Mars.

Once more using the replicators I stockpile MASSIVE amounts of mineral wealth, readying myself for the next leg of my journey.

At the ten year mark the lattice finally reaches the anchorage stations, and among much celebration, limited loads of supply's are shipped up the elevator being used to build the anchorage station, which compared to previous standards is absolutely massive. At one thirty round it looked much like a bicycle wheel with five spooks connected to a rotating ring of gravity blocks, Mimicking the design seen in Gundam OO.

As the station is completed I allow the first civilians visits of the station, making history with the first hotels in space. Yet, it is a miniscule milestone compared to what I have planned. Using the elevator, which was only operating at one quarter capacity it was still more then enough to ferry MASSIVE amounts of material into space, allowing the construction begin of a the largest spaceship in human history, it was designed as a construction platform first and foremost, Its destination? The moon. As soon as its completed I announce the mission to the world to construct the first long time base on the moons surface. The ship was designed to land itself and detach base modules before reconfiguring into a cargo-ship. By the time the pillar is three quarters finished, the ship sets off making a slow burn to the moon using massive rocket engines, powered by a slightly less powerful but much much more efficient. However, it still took three burns over the course of as many orbits for the flightpath to intersect the moons orbit, and two weeks after it launched it made contact with the moon, the landing was broadcast world wide, as was the deployment of the modals. When all was said and done, five hundred men and women were on the moon. And they were only the first construction crew. The now cargoship returned in days rather then weeks and took on a massive amount of construction material including an incredibly high strength crystalline glass-like material, it was to be used to construct the new domed city's upon the moon.

As the years go on more and more ships are sent, constructing what would be called New Triumphant city.

However, my time in this reality was running out, I was much past my prime and quickly approaching Sixty and despite Treatment with Regeneration therapy my body was easily in its thirty's physically, well past the prime, meaning it was time to get on with things. As the pillar was completed I ceded more and more control of the union to the high council, inventively preparing them for my departure.

My final task and gift to this reality was to send deep space resource extraction vessels to the asteroid belt, which by no coincidence one of these vessels was headed for one of the trinium rich asteroids, over the course of the next two years they made there finds and returned entire asteroids to Lagrange point around the earth, and the invention of trinium was announced to the world. With that, I was set to make my final broadcast to the world.

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Heavens Pillar Orbital Station.

I smiled as I stepped up to the podium one last time in this reality, or to be more precise my hologram did, the flowing red dress hugged me beautifully was perfect, and while my slightly aging face was much doctored with makeup it was still stunning.

"People of the union, and of earth. I am speaking to you here today to give you one last message before I step down as leader of the great union I founded." I start off with causing many to gasp and start snapping pictures.

"I will keep it short and simple. Mankind is not alone in this universe." I say with a grinning smile, watching as everyone's brains go into shut down.

"I'm sure many of you are asking were is the proof of this, and to that I answer. Your standing on it, using it, living on it. All of the worlds current technology, is not human in nature." I declare drawing several gasps.

"It is actually from a race called the Asgard. Which some of you may realize is, or more rather was. From a hit science fiction television show of my generation, Stargate SG-1" I say causing silence to fall across the crowd of reporters.

"How is this possible you may ask? The answer while incredibly fantastic, is the truth. When I was eighteen, and living in northern Minnesota, a ship crash landed infront of me. This ship was a tel'tak class cargo-ship Go'uld in origin, piloted by a To'kra spy. Onboard this ship was a experimental piece of technology know as a reality jump drive. And with it I was able to return to the reality of star-gate, and copy the Asgard knowledge base. When I returned I began my journey, fabricating a ship and jumping to a reality identical to my own. This is were I built my union, the vision I had in my youth was now a reality. I've have spent every waking moment advancing mankind to the best of my capability's." I say with a straight face.

"Were is the proof you may ask? I tell you again to look around you, do you honestly believe we could achieve this on our own in under fifty years?" I state simply.

"If that is not enough for you, I ask you to look to the main viewing window of this station." I say as everyone turns there heads, and moving to the side I turn a crystal on the control interface causing the Thor to de-cloak.

The reaction is priceless, a huge intake of breath, and silence as everyone stares at me.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. I bid you goodbye. My time in this reality has come to an end. I have achieved my goals, and set up the basis for my inter-dimensional Union of Freedom. I leave to said union, a data base, hidden within this database and protected by several monitoring systems is the accumulated knowledge of the Asgard. The core itself contains an Artificial Intelligence that is monitoring all known media. When it is deemed that you have progressed far enough into space and as a people it will unlock portions of the database for you. This is my gift to you, and insurance that petty greed will no longer be a primary factor in the running of humanity It is in my personal office in union tower, no redesign as a control room." I say with a smile before bowing.

"Goodbye my friends. I swear to you I will return someday." I say as I deactivate the hologram and sit down in my control chair, piloting a ways away from the elevator.

"You ready for this Ed?" I ask looking over my shoulder to one Edward Morra who looked almost as youth-full as he did when I first came to this reality.

"As I ever will be. Hit it rose." he says with a smile and I nod. Activating the jump drive which was locked into the destination reality hours ago.

As I do a bubble of space time unfolds around the ship, encompassing the several cargoships filled to the brim with materials. When it stopped we disappear in a bright flash of light, only to reappear in the same orbit over a much changed earth.

"Cloaking" I say simply as I get up and look at the barren brown and blue planet beneath me.

AN

hope you guys like it! i was trying to stretch it out a bit, i think i did an ok job considering the rough draft of this was half the length. so! what do you guys think? are you ready for the real sci-fi shit to come into play now?

Three words baby.

Armoured-Motherfucking-Core

if there ever was a "Total" dominance all in one weapon-system, it is the armored core next. closely rivaled by the arms fort's of the league corporations. This reality is infact were i got the name for the Union from, as there is a faction with the name Interior Union. the Union's logo is much the same with different wording is all.


	9. Chapter 8

Righto! Here we are again! The story progresses! I wasn't sure about this one at first, but the more i read through it the more I figured what the hell. Its not half bad in my mind.

That being said my new beta, one romanhellhound who contacted me through is the one who helped me make this one presentable, so a round of applause to him!

And on a final note before the chapter starts, those of you who don't know the series, and perticuarly the AC:4 universe, I STRONGLY recommend you take a look at the following trailers.

AC:4

AC:4 answer

* * *

 **[Start:Eve Online Caldari Rock]**

six months later.

The last few months had been hectic, the falsifying of records and identification was easy, the procurement of the technology I wanted, not so much, the "next" technology had some of the highest security measures in place I had ever seen, and while I could easily breach it and take it by force, I was here to have fun also.

This inevitably lead to the mass fabrication of funding. Which due to the level of technology on this earth, took several months as not only did we have to produce the funding, but use it in order to retro-fit an "Old" military base from before the national dismantlement war, and crew it with staff and technicians.

Of-course it didn't take nearly as long as it could have, considering the base was nearly as good as new thanks to a little work with the Asgard beaming system. Once it was completed and staffed. I purchased one of the machines I was after, an Armored Core "Next" it was an out of date Reloynard model, but soon it would be the most advanced piece of technology on the planet. It was a fun challenge with the space I had to work with, for I intended to install every bit of Asgard technology I could.

Starting with the power core I replaced it with a neutrino ion reactor, the power output was several thousand times that of the original kojima powerplant. The primal armor system, now impossible without a kojima reactor was done away with completely, using the spaces left by the field generators I installed Asgardian shield emitters, making in near impervious to any weapon that could be used against it. Save for the densest of kojima beams.

The armor system was the next to go, made of a steel-tungsten alloy in a layered format I replaced it with the trinium naquada carbon alloy used by the Asgard for there ships, making even the armor near impervious to conventional weapons, it was however still susceptible to degradation under constant bombardment.

Next up was the weapons system, I didn't have much to work with, the arm weapons consisted of a primitive energy blade and a machine gun of an extremely large bore, both close range weapons. I kept the casing for the weapons but completely reworked there internal mechanism's, for the energy blade I utilized the same type of plasma used by the APB's only I kept it in a magnetic bottle to stabilize it, increasing the duration of the blade from a one an a half seconds to well over ten. Only problems with overheating kept me from doing any more.

For the machine gun I use the same alloy as the armor in order to strengthen the mechanisms to withstand a ten times stronger propellant, the same used as rocket fuel in the previous reality. Constructing the ammunition with the Asgard synthesizer which I made out of pure trinium I increased the ammo capacity of a single clip ten fold, as the synthesizer was powered by the reactor, the clips only contained blocks of trinium and propellant.

The weapons mounted on the back of the shoulders were disregarded, in favor of a more long range load-out, a 16-shot missile launcher was mounted on the left back and a miniature ion cannon on the right, both of which were linked with the cores computer system giving them unparalleled accuracy.

With a processing power unheard of thanks to the same type of quantum crystal core used on the Thor, the speed and maneuverability of the missiles was unimaginable. The missiles themselves were hellfire carriers, capable of either splinting into six cluster missiles, or a single powerful hunter-killer

One of the most important changes however, was to the internals of the massive machine, the artificial muscles were replaced by reactive carbon fiber cables, a material straight from the database, it allowed for movement speeds to be increased by a factor of ten whilst using half the space, allowing for more muscle strands per limb, giving it a far larger range of maneuverability. Before the cores were lumbering giants, most rather clumsy, while the faster ones were incredibly under armored. Now this core was as fast as the smallest Technocrat models, more durable then the strongest of fortress models, and had more energy then the most heavy duty Torus model.

And finally, the system I had the most fun reworking was the booster systems, while already able to accelerate to speeds en excess of mach one using a V.O.B. and that of seven hundred kilometers per hour under normal power, they were extremely power hungry. It wasn't hard to perfect the system, I just replaced the normal boosters with impulse models normally reserved for spacecraft. It was now possible for the quick boost function to break the sound barrier, hit the reverse, come to a stop and accelerate past the sound barrier once more in under a second. And the regular boost kept cruising speeds to just under said barrier. Over boost was well past mach two. The best part however was that with the V.O.B. the massive machine could reach mach ten, as fast as orbital reentry speeds. It strained the shield system minutely but it was more then practical. With the new found gee-forces associated with this the cockpit was completely redesigned, retaining its shape it was instead filled with a thick viscus fluid, the same that was used in Asgard clone stasis pods, slightly modified to be more suitable to humans, it was a breathable nutrient fluid.

But it wasn't enough.

While the core was incredibly powerful, it wasn't versatile, with a limited amount of weaponry at my disposal, it only fit into one role, shock and awe. With an initial barrage from the shoulder mounted "Hellfires", and fast hit and run tactics. It was capable of quickly crippling many foes, but for massive armed forts of this worlds military's it was unsuited to fight them, it simply didn't have weaponry powerful enough to cripple them in the time I wanted. Sure with the plasma blade most everything could be destroyed, but that was an ill suited method unless all defensive weaponry had already been destroyed.

So, I was going to obtain every last piece of NEXT technology the planet had to offer, and I was going to have the time of my life doing it.

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Three weeks later.

It had taken a little time but after falsifying some records I managed to register with the leagues next pilot system. It was a little over a week I had been given my first contract and the Arch Angel, as I had called her was deployed.

Taking a deep breath I sigh, looking at the cockpit filled with stasis fluid I was about to enter. Quite hesitant as drowning was one of my biggest fears.

"You gonna get in or keep siting there giving me a show?" I hear Edward ask from beside me to which I simply flip him off and slide into the fluid, sinking into the seat, my swimsuit quickly getting soaked, I struggle to hold my breath for a few minutes before I can't help but gasp, it is the most peculiar feeling as the fluid rushes into my lungs, but does not suffocate me, if anything its easier to breath then air.

As the lights come on and the chamber is illuminated the hatch closes, and the cockpit tops off the fluid.

"Alright rose, give em hell out there. Here is the mission briefing sent to us, though I'm sure you already know what it is." Ed says as the three hundred and sixty display screen activates around me, showing the external of the machine, and giving me a strange sense of vertigo at how high the viewpoint is. A moment later in front of me a message box pops up and the symbol of the Union appears.

"This is your mission."

It says as it changes to the briefing screen displaying and image of the line ark facility.

"Eradicate the defensive units deployed in the line ark zone. As you know line ark is the main base for anti-establishment forces that oppose the cradles."

It says as the three dimensional image pans around the facility before changing the image that of a massive multi-decked flying wing that was the habitat known as a cradle.

"We have tired to negotiate peacefully with these revolutionists, but they refused our overtures and continue their violent attacks." the smooth feminine voice says as the camera pans around the cradle before displaying the symbol of the league and a list of the corporations it is made of.

"This mission is a show of force to encourage the enemy to rejoin negotiations. We never like to resort to violence, but in this case, we have no choice."

The image changes again showing the core I most want to get my hands on, white glint.

Line ark's main weapon, white glint is currently operating in another area and will not be a risk in this operation."

"Note that this mission is a test run of your capabilities, we trust you will deliver a successful result." she finished as the league symbol is displayed one more time.

As the briefing finishes I sigh and nod to myself psyching myself up for my first combat operation. Keeping the core in standby I go about attaching the new control system to myself, first putting on the shoulder and elbow sensors, then the hip knee and foot pieces before putting the control gloves on, with a quick shake of my hands the machine comes out of standby mode, and I can practically feel the power course through it as the heads up display comes up, showing an outline of the core in the top right and percentages linked to each limb, on the top left as the ammo count of my weapons. And in the middle is set of bars indicating power and shield capacity.

As the display comes up and the screen registered online mode I take one slow step after another out of the massive hanger doors.

"Good luck rose." Eddy says simply and I nod as yes V.O.B. is locked into place, the two super powered catapults locking onto the feet of the craft.

"This is Rose Red, pilot of the Arch Angel, launching!" I announce as the catapults engage throwing me out of the hanger doors and into open space as they were molded into the side of a cliff, the moment I'm out the booster kicks in and I rocket forward, breaking the sound barrier and causing the end all be all of sonic booms leaving a wake in the ocean five hundred meters below me. I smile smile wildly as I rocket towards the line ark zone.

"Holy motherfucking hell this is fraking awesome!" I shout out as I watch the ocean flash by, as atmospheric friction builds up and plasma trails start forming around me the shields shrugging it off now problem, as I achieve max speed I appear to be a meteor streaking across the sky. At a speed of seven thousand eight hundred miles per hour.

I breath in deeply as the world flashes by, smiling in glee at the majesty of it all. However, all good things must come to an end as they say, and before I know it, a red wall is overlaid on the screen, indicating the combat zone, and the V.O.B. fuel gauge flashes indicating its about to disengage.

The moment I enter the zone it does, and looking down I see the massive arch like roadway. Re-configuring the massive mech into combat mode from flight mode the air resistance is sharply increased and the massive machine decelerates back to subsonic speeds nearly instantly, the gee-forces only feeling like a slight pull thanks to my fluid surroundings.

As I come down from altitude I engage the primary booster system slowing my decent to tolerable rates, landing on one of the many platforms in between the highways.

As I do a com window pops open from my operator in the league.

"Impressive entry pilot, what the hell did you do to that next?" she asks and I she smile.

"Trade secret" I reply grinning.

"Alright, commence mission, eliminate all line ark defenses." she orders and I nod as I boost into the air moving forward towards several of the old generation MT's on the other platforms, I cant help but laugh lightly as I pick up there panicked radio chatter.

"A league next!?" someone shouts as I bring about the massive machine gun and let loose, filling the cockpit with subtle vibrations as the massive bullets are fired towards the enemy units, each one that impacts annihilates its target, in most cases completely ripping the cockpit from the legs in a single shot.

And I was firing at over two hundred rounds per minute.

"Damn it not now!" another voice shouts as they return fire and I activate the quick boost mode, causing a massive jet to come out of my machines right shoulder and leg accelerating me past the sound barrier before I engage the other side and rocket back to my previous position, having dodged the fire, I let loose a few more rounds taking out the remaining units on the platform.

Soaring past there remains I take a quick glance at my sensor feed, following it to the next set of angry red blips.

As soon as I pass one of the massive pillars I'm hit with a large amount of weapons fire, barely lowering my shields. In response I boost once more, this time straight towards the enemy, activating the plasma sword I hold out my arm, as I pass by the MT's slicing them in half cleanly.

"Confirmed, half of the targets destroyed, impressive work." the operator says and I nod as I bend down before jumping, the mech mimicking my movements and the main booster bringing me up the highway running the length of the ark complex.

Evading fire from more MT's I give them a clean sweep with the machine gun before landing on the roadway itself and bringing up the rapid response display I had custom designed as I activate the over boost, keying locking in several commands I take off like a rocket accelerating to mach 2.2 tearing up the roadway in my wake I'm on the MT's in the tunnel ahead of me in an instant, once more using the beam saber I take them out, quick boosting to the left I simply bulldoze through the other ones. Exiting the tunnel I take to the skies shutting off the over boost as I let lose a volley of thirty missiles, half of them streaking to the left while the others keep forward, streaking towards the GA-03 solar wind model "normal's"

each unit is impacted by three missiles near simultaneously completely destroying their cockpit sections.

"Reinforcements incoming." my operator informs me what I already knew, my sensors having picked them up the moment they launched when I entered the battlefield.

Keeping to the air I simply hose them down with the machine gun destroying them all in moments.

"Confirmed, all enemies annihilated, amazing work." I smile and roll my eyes as the operator speaks.

"Did you expect anything less?" I say with a giggle as I start back towards home base.

"To be honest, yes your machine is years out of date, I've no idea what you've done to it but its simply amazing. How you got this past the league I may never know, but girl you certainly have there attention now." she says and I laugh.

"Tell ya what, come down and have a drink with me and I just might tell you the story." I say with smile as as I send her my personal contact information before cutting the channel. Moments later another one opens.

"Good work Rosy, we've already received our payment from the league. And had several markets opened up to us. Broadcasting you the information now." Edward informs me and I nod as access it. Looking at the massive list of parts now available for purchase. Smiling as I go through the list I pick out several items tagging them as priority buys, the first starting with a few of the assault rifle models, including one of my favorite models from the game, the rifle used by white glint from the Bernard and Felix foundation.

As I keep up the leisurely pace back to base I purchase the schematics for the rifle and load them into the Asgard core, optimizing it much the same way as the machine gun upping its power immensely.

The remaining funding I save, using a portion to import a large amount of booze for the personal based at the hanger.

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later that night.

Union Base commissary.

I breathe the smokey atmosphere in deeply as I light up one of my own, swirling around a glass of a soft drink similar to coke mixed with an interesting variant of whiskey, taking a sip and enjoying the inhabiting effects.

My purpose here was twofold, mostly just to enjoy myself and let loose for the first time in years, and the second I was waiting. I had been contacted earlier by a women by the name of Serena Haze, it was she who was my operator from today's mission asking to meet with me. She was prepared to arrange transport to the cradle she was residing in, but I told her if she wanted to talk she had to come down to my level. She was hesitant but the lure of the technology I displayed was sufficient persuasion.

Thus it was to my delight, and entertainment when she finally arrived, I had half expected her to have a full hazmat suit on, but I knew it would have been incredibly fantastic, as it were when she walked into the smoke filled area, a static filter was apparent by the light blueish aura around her face whenever she walked through a cloud of smoke. As she paused to look around I raised my glass to her motioning.

I watch her closely through my glasses, watching as with a mental command an overlay is displayed bringing up the dossier the League has on her, born on the ground near the end of the lynx war she and her family were on the second wave of immigrants to the cradles, were she lived since the age of ten. At the age of sixteen she joined with collards military academy, undergoing the strictest of training for the next four years she was allowed into there ranks. For the next year she attempted to pass the organizations next compatibility test were she was found incompatible do the a slight brain defect attributed to surface exposure as a child.

According to the record however she didn't let that stop he, she immediately applied for the military intelligence division and over the course of the next five years worked her way up the chain to were she was today as a next operator.

Closing down the overlay as she approaches I nod to her and pour a second glass of the whiskey coke mixture. Sliding it over to her.

"I'm alright thanks. Id rather not-" sighing I roll my eyes.

"Stop right there, before you go on worried about contaminates all of this around you was imported from the cradles, and passed the strictest purification tests, now if you wanna talk to me, your gonna have to have a drink with me." I say with a sly grin as she stares at me for a moment in relative shock and I take in her appearance, the short soft blond hair, the pristine skirted uniform, the stockings and high-heels, matching the curvature of her body perfectly like she was poured into it. Sighing I mentally shake my head reminding myself that if things go as planed, I can enjoy it later.

"Alright then." she says taken aback as she sits down, she takes a swig of the whiskey mixture.

"So, given you've made the effort to come all the way down here, I'm guessing there's something you want to know?" I ask innocently tilting my head to the side for effect and smiling flirtatiously at her, to my delight she flushes slightly and looks away as she takes another drink.

"Obviously." she says as she drinks looking around for a moment. Before turning back to me.

"You've managed to turn into an out of date Next into something faster and more maneuverable then anything I've ever seen, and if the camera footage is anything to go by you've modified the weapons system on it heavily too." she says her eyes lighting up and I know I have her hooked without even trying.

"Aaaaannnnd?" I ask with another flirtatious smile enjoying her reaction, which was downing the rest of her glass.

"I want to know how obviously. I've already done you a favor you know. It wasn't easy deleting the records and video files from your mission." she says grinning seeming rather proud of herself. Nodding I pour her another glass.

"I shouldn't." she says rather embarrassed to which I wave my hand dismissively.

"Don't be a sissy, its fine." I say simply pushing the glass towards her waiting until she takes another sip before speaking.

"As I mentioned, it IS a trade secret, but I would be willing to let you in on it if your willing to agree to a few conditions..." I say trailing off smiling at her once more.

"uhm... wha... what are they?" she asks clearly embarrassed and I let out a laugh shaking my head.

"ha! Oh that was to easy, your fun!" I say playfully as I take another pull of my drink savoring the burn as it travels down my throat.

"I'm sure its not what you were thinking, maybe even hoping. But I will need you to sign a non disclosure agreement." I say with a smile enjoying her reaction as she flushes deeply.

"I think your forgetting I work for the league remember? I cant hide things from them forever." she says in a professional tone, obviously falling back on her conditioning to fight through the embarrassment.

"Trust me, with what I have to offer that commitment will pale in comparison." I say with a smile as I finish my glass, motioning for her to do the same. Watching as she hesitates looking at me before shrugging her shoulders and slamming the rest of it down, following me as I get up.

"You should count yourself lucky, you're going to be the second person in this world that knows about this." I announce just loud enough for her to hear as I lead her out of the cafeteria. Noticing her puzzled look at my choice of words.

"oookay... are you gonna tell me how the hell you enhanced that damn thing then or not?" she mutters clearly loosening up some and I nod smiling as I open a door leading to an empty room and head inside.

"Yup, well not exactly but I'm going to make it incredibly transparent on how I did it." I say with a smile as the door closes behind her and she looks around in confusion.

"What are we doing in-" she's cut off as were both engulfed in a blinding white light marked by an audible chime, and moments later our surroundings change to that of the bridge of the Thor.

"-here!?" say her voice raising several octaves as she looks around in a panic, here eyes locking onto the large window at the front of the bridge.

"... What the hell did you put in my drink..." she says as she rubs her eyes and starts looking around in shock and fear.

"Nothing at all Kasumi." I say with a smile as her gaze jerks back towards me eyes wide.

"Yea, I know who you are. Its not hard to tell when a file is a fabrication when you have a quantum computer of in unimaginable power backing your efforts." I say with a wide smile hoping onto the railing beside me and swinging my legs ideally.

"But... but... how!?" she sputters out clearly in shock.

"Its a relatively simple story really, and as fantastical as it sounds its the truth, you are after all standing on the proof." I say with a smile and a wink before I explain to her how the tel'tak with the reality drive crashed in front of me and how I obtained the entire database of a race many millions of years old, the setting up of my interdenominational union of freedom, ending with the fact that this reality was in fact nothing but a video game in mine.

"..." he reaction is priceless as she just stares at me blankly for over a minute.

"So. I don't suppose I could count on your help?" I ask with another stunning smile.

"What... what do you need me for?" she asks after a while.

"For starters I need a contact in the league that can help me get access to all current next technology, and a skilled operator of course. But most importantly I would like you to act as a military adviser for the unions Next division." I finish with another dazzling smile as I hop off the railing and walk towards her with a seductive gait, thoroughly enjoying her flush as she looks back towards the window.

"And if... I happen to say no?" she asks and I sigh.

"Then I'm afraid I would have to wipe your memory of this entire conversation and work on getting the next tech myself." I say still approaching her stopping within inches of her.

"I... don't see how I could say no." she replies as she stares out the window before turning back to me and gasping at the closeness.

"Good, cause I really wanted to do _this_ " I say as I lean forward and kiss her passionately causing her to gasp. However a moment later she melts into my hands...

UoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoF

I awake the next mourning in my lavish bedroom aboard the Thor, cuddled up against a warm mass slowly raising and lowering in time with the sound of breathing coming from next to my head, snuggling into it I sigh as I remember the exquisite love making from the night before.

After a while I notice the breathing beside me pick up in speed lightly before the body I'm cuddling into stiffens suddenly, in an effort to reassure her I snuggle into her back more and place my head on her shoulder.

"Shhh... its fine, remember?" I whisper into her ear as I kiss her neck lightly and she relaxes once more melting into me as I initiate another passionate session.

A few hours and a shower later I'm picking up my clothes that were strewn all over the room in last nights activities, Kasumi doing the same with a fierce blush locked onto her face.

"So, are you ready for whats next?" I ask as I'm putting my under garments on.

"I think so, but what exactly does that entail?" she says looking back at me a light blush still in place but obviously in business mode.

"Well... there's a couple of things that could happen. But the path I intend to follow will involve betraying the league, and under normal circumstances condemning those in the cradles to death..." I say watching as her expression changes from fierce determination to horror.

"But I just happen to be in position of technology millions of years ahead of this iteration of mans, and if I have anything to do with it, the surface will be livable once more when the cradles fall." I say with a grin as I pull my stockings back on.

"Wait, what!? The cradles are going to fall?" she half shouts and I sigh nodding as I launch into an explanation of orca and there closed plan. When I'm done a half-hour later were both fully dressed and eating a light breakfast, and in my case having a smoke.

"Incredible... I see the logic... but... so many..." she says sighing as she looks at the ceiling and I nod doing the same.

"Something you need to understand Kasumi, is that in the formation of this union there are going to be lives lost. The few million that may die in the fall will be paltry compared to the lives lost in the next reality, they have populations in the trillions, and the wars they wage cost the lives of billions and more Kasumi. This is a fact you have to harden yourself to. I... I myself am personally responsible for the deaths of over ninety thousand. I have accepted the fact. You need to also."

As I finish I sigh as I look back upon the war of the Union as it was called in that reality, at all the American lives I took.

"I... I understand. Your right... I suppose we will be saving more lives then we are taking..." she says and I nod looking at her.

"More then you can ever imagine Kasumi, in more then one plane mankind faces extinction, and we have the power to prevent it. Are you committed to this course?" I ask and she nods.

"Of course." she says and I smile, jumping up off the bed and heading towards the door.

"I do have one more question through.. I'm.. not entirely sure how to phrase it.." she says flushing again and I look at her cocking my head to the side.

"What is it?" I ask simply as she takes a deep breath.

"Its just.. you said you wanted me to be a military adviser for your next corps, but... we.. we just slept together, how can I do both?" she asks clearly embarrassed and I giggle.

"Don't worry about it silly. Being immortal leaves more then enough room for our fair share of casual jaunts underneath the sheets" I say with a sultry wink enjoying her embarrassed and shocked look.

"Immortal!?" she says simply as I open to door.

"Oops. Did I forget to mention that?" I say as I walk out into the hallway.

* * *

Well! There she be, the first part of the Unions jaunt into the armored core four reality, along with an overview of what is possible with a Next enhanced with Asgard technology, can anyone say OP as fuck? If so that's the vibe I was going for, fear not however as despite the incredible power of the Next, the Union will be facing foes capable of negating the edge it gives them.

Now! Questions? Comments? Lets hear em!


	10. Chapter 9

Righto! Here we are, I more or less blitzed this one as despite myself being a huge fan of it, the armored core series isint really well known, not the same way eve and stargate are, I did however get the point across of just how powerfull the cores are, that being said here it is.

[Start:EVE Minmatar Rock]

I awake the next mourning in my lavish bedroom aboard the Thor, cuddled up against a warm mass slowly raising and lowering in time with the sound of breathing coming from next to my head, snuggling into it I sigh as I remember the exquisite love making from the night before.

After a while I notice the breathing beside me pick up in speed lightly before the body I'm cuddling into stiffens suddenly, in an effort to reassure her I snuggle into her back more and place my head on her shoulder.

"shhh... its fine, remember?" I whisper into her ear as I kiss her neck lightly and she relaxes once more melting into me as I initiate another passionate session.

A few hours and a shower later I'm picking up my clothes that were strewn all over the room in last nights activities, Kasumi doing the same with a fierce blush locked onto her face.

"So, are you ready for whats next?" I ask as I'm putting my under garments on.

"I think so, but what exactly does that entail?" she says looking back at me a light blush still in place but obviously in business mode.

"Well... there's a couple of things that could happen. But the path I intend to follow will involve betraying the league, and under normal circumstances condemning those in the cradles to death..." I say watching as her expression changes from fierce determination to horror.

"But I just happen to be in possession of technology millions of years ahead of this iteration of man, and if I have anything to do with it, the surface will be livable once more when the cradles fall." I say with a grin as I pull my stockings back on.

"Wait, what!? The cradles are going to fall?" she half shouts and I sigh nodding as I launch into an explanation of Orca and there closed plan. When I'm done a half-hour later were both fully dressed and eating a light breakfast, and in my case having a smoke.

"Incredible... I see the logic... but... so many..." she says sighing as she looks at the ceiling and I nod doing the same.

"Something you need to understand Kasumi, is that in the formation of this union there are going to be lives lost. The few million that may die in the fall will be paltry compared to the lives lost in the next reality, they have populations in the trillions, and the wars they wage cost the lives of billions and more Kasumi. This is a fact you have to harden yourself to. I... I myself am personally responsible for the deaths of over ninety thousand. I have accepted the fact. You need to also."

As I finish I sigh as I look back upon the war of the union as it was called in that reality, at all the American lives I took.

"I... I understand. Your right... I suppose we will be saving more lives then we are taking..." she says and I nod looking at her.

"More then you can ever imagine Kasumi, in more then one plane mankind faces extinction, and we have the power to prevent it. Are you committed to this course?" I ask and she nods.

"Of course." she says and I smile, jumping up off the bed and heading towards the door.

"I do have one more question through.. I'm.. not entirely sure how to phrase it.." she says flushing again and I look at her cocking my head to the side.

"What is it?" I ask simply as she takes a deep breath.

"Its just.. you said you wanted me to be a military adviser for your Next corps, but... we.. we just slept together, how can I do both?" she asks clearly embarrassed and I giggle.

"Don't worry about it silly. Being immortal leaves more then enough room for our fair share of casual jaunts underneath the sheets" I say with a sultry wink enjoying her embarrassed and shocked look.

"Immortal!?" she says simply as I open to door.

"Oops. Did I forget to mention that?" I say as I walk out into the hallway.

UoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoF

The following weeks are absolutely hectic as operational pace kicks up by a large factor and missions open up to us, the third day after my jaunt with Serene as she preferred to be called, I'm given a new set of missions I could undertake, resulting in the complete destruction of a fleet in harbor at Mimir naval port.

However, what really put me on the radar for the league was my complete annihilation of BFF's eight fleet. The reason being was I was only hired to take out the arms fort at its core, but instead I managed to cripple the entire fleet as I rocketed past them using a VOB thanks to my hellfire missiles, before the VOB disengaged I had completely emptied my complement of them over three hundred, which multiplied to two thousand and four hundred warheads, all of which were spread over the decks of the dozens of warships present.

While that in itself was stunning the sustained use of my energy blade to sink the arms fort itself stunned them even more, and I found a substantial bonus to my paycheck along with near total access to the next arms market.

Over the course of the next two weeks I kept elevating my already lofty reputation, eliminating an invasion force headed towards Omer's Sphere Kojima production facility, and eviscerating another arms fort. And proved I wasn't above the simple jobs by escorting a convoy across a desert.

The next highlight for me personally however was my fight with the Next "wonderful body" it was an adrenaline rush like no other, as I knew that this foe posed a true threat to me, no matter how small, and I found myself craving more after I wiped him out with a single round from my shoulder mounted rail-gun.

However what I was really waiting for was the chance to take out algebras powerful arms fort Cabaracan, it was expected that I would hold it up and keep it occupied while a unit from ga's arms fort division did the heavy lifting, but I shocked the world when I took it out myself using a combination of my plasma sword and hellfire missiles. The missiles made short work of the dozens of combat drones it deployed once I immobilized it, once they were out of the picture the plasma sword slagged through enough of the armor for my railgun to breach the reactor core.

From there I was hailed as a military and technological masterpiece and I was barraged with several offers to purchase my next, and foiled several espionage attempts.

Over the course of the next month I blitzed through a series of missions, defeating two unknown Next's whom I know are from Orca, and once more making history by taking out GA's arms fort great wall. However, the mission I had been waiting for was finally granted me as within hours of each other I was contacted by the league and Line Ark one asking for me to destroy white glint, and the other to defend it.

I choose to defend it. Changing the games history by saving white glint, and instead of asking for payment I get the schematics for said core.

Replicating it and upgrading it to my specifications I become an unstoppable force. Blitzing through a set of ordered matches its no surprise when I become then new first ranked Next. Hours after having said rank I'm contacted by Orca and asked to destroy the ulna arteria facility. When I do its only the first broadside against said facilities, with a quarter of them going offline within the month.

The reaction of course was predictable, the league exiled us, labeling us as criminals against mankind.

Over the course of the next month we keep up the pressure, taking out sever more arteria facilities, however when the league discovers the anti-satalight cannons, I'm sent to defend them, once more it goes over flawlessly and I add another two cores and an aerial arms forst to my kill board.

Its then I'm tasked with attacking the cranium, the worlds largest arteria facility. Escorted by Thermidor himself we take it on. And after a pitched battle we defeat the three Nexts defending it.

UoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoFUoF

It is then, as the cradles are beginning to fall that I grant this world my final gift, having obtained all technology I had wanted from them, I create and detonate a massive nanite bomb, composed of trinium-naquada the nanites use the explosion as fuel and spread out across the airways of earth gently floating down to the surface and scrubbing it clean of any Kojima contamination they encounter. Sparing the hundred of millions who lived in the cradles from a slow and painful death.

In one final act of kindness I construct a facility on mars with an Asguardian computer core containing several hundred humanitarian technology's, and leave it broadcasting a signal for all to see.

Once more jumping realities, I make a layover back in my home reality, check in in on earth I'm mildly surprised by the end of nearly all warfare and a huge international effort to reclaim space, which had the side effect of bringing America out of the depression it was in.

Moving back to my shipyard in alpha-centauri I once more unleash my replicators on the planets mineral wealth and order the enlargement of the shipyard, double the size of the birth and ordering two more constructed, placing it under the effects of a time dilation device I only have to wait a day for it to finish and for a large amount of materials to be stockpiled once more.

It was then with three more slips that I ordered the dis-assembly and reconstruction of the Thor, doubling its size I make several modifications, including two hanger bays capable of deploying either next's or three hundred ares superiority fighters. Modified heavily with the removal of its old fuel tank, in its place a power generator, shielding, propulsion and inertial dampener systems were added, its missiles were modified along side it, replacing the old models with naquada enhanced hellfire carriers, its anti-fighter capability was astounding, and with an on board Asgard synthesizer it was capable of carrying sixty missiles per bird.

The next modification was to the weapons systems of the ships, installing six more plasma beam emitters, bringing the total up to ten, and dozens of recessed missile turrets around the ship, capable of launching hellfire cruise missiles, given there versatility were capable of anti-ship duties when enhanced with naquadria, or counter missile and anti fighter duties.

I also reintroduced the Ion cannons that were utilized to amazing effect in the Asgards replicator war, placing six turrets on the top and bottom of the ship. However the final modification to the weapon system was the one I had the most fun with, required heavy modification to the ships structure I had introduced a spinal mounted magnetic accelerator cannon, capable of launching slugs weighing thousands of tons to eighty percent of the speed of light, it could be considered primitive, but it was an incredibly effective weapons system, which when used with different ammunition types it could be incredibly versatile, capable of destroying ships wholesale or crippling there systems with low power pinpoint strikes. It also didn't hurt that I had a nerdgasim designing it.

The final and quite possible most important modification was the shield and power generation systems, while simple and straightforward it was crucial if the ships were to survive the dangers of the next universe.

Tripling the amount of power generators and shield emitters was only the first and most basic modification, the biggest was to utilize ever square inch of free space on the ship for a massive capacitor array capable of holding a extreme amount of energy and funneling it to any system requiring it, it was a primitive yet effective answer the untold amounts of firepower New Eden contained.

Once all the ships were completed and Edward and Serena were familiarized with piloting them I set about the final and most important task. Creating a massive generator farm and channeling its output to the Thor and the jump drive, and as more power then earth has consumed in the last hundred years courses through it, a bubble of static space time slowly envelopes the planet, reaching its peak it shifts with a blinding white flash of light the entire planet disappears transitioning dimensions, its end destination?

A cluster of stars at the edge of the known universe known as New Eden.

And that's that! Now the REAL fun begins. If you don't know eve I STRONGLY recommend you look up a few trailers for it. However the general tone of this portion of the story meshes quite well with this song. for those reading on fanfiction, youtube Universe on Fire by Gloryhammer


	11. Announcement

New

im sorry guys. im afraid im going to have to put this story on haitus for a while. something i never ever wanted to do, but as they say things change. in this case the passing of my father on the fourth. theres just to much going on now to put any real effort into this writing.

ill do my best to get back to it soon, but it is more then likely going to take a while before i pick it up agian. 


	12. Update! NOT CANCELED

hey guys, sorry for not posting in so long. its been a rough time since dads passing. that being said, i feel bad X.X i actually have posted a few more chapters but ive been locked out of my account for a while as my HDD i kept my password on died. but i managed to remember it, so here we are. anyway. if you wanna see the few chapters ive updated drop by spacebattles creative writing forums. and search the story name or my username. ^_^ again. sorry for not posting here in so long. i do plan on completly rebooting the story given how much my writing has improved since i started this one. no timeframe however as things are day by day at the moment. thank you all for keeping up with this one, it means a lot to me.


	13. UPDATE RE-WRITE STARTED

This is me letting everyone who follows this story know that the first chapter of the redux is up on the spacebattles creative writing forums. i am choosing to post it there as it is much easier receive feedback and reply to questions and critque. i do plan on posting it here eventually, possibly once a number of chapters are up, but i figured i should let those who have been waiting for an update know its finally here.

in order to find it simply google " **space battles stargate the butterfly effect redux** " it will be the first result.


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